201 HIV positive cases in Tihar jail

March 18, 2010

Submitted by Piyush Diwan on Wed, 03/17/2010 - 23:35. Featured TNM Health India

News

201 cases of HIV positive patients have been reported at the dreaded Tihar jail.

These prisoners are currently spending their imprisonment time, said a report by

the government.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad said in Rajya

Sabha, " Between the year 2008 to 2010, a total of 2,540 inmates have been tested

and out of them 201 have been found to be HIV positive. "

The current statistics show that 55 of the prisoners are infected with HIV/AIDS

and are in Delhi jails, 14 amongst them are on an anti- Retroviral Therapy.

Surprisingly, these cases have come to light after it is claimed that accused

are thoroughly tested for HIV in Integrated Counseling and Testing Centre (ICTC)

before starting their term of imprisonment. This is as per the NACO protocol.

The prisoners who are detected negative are educated and counseled about the

ramifications of the deadly disease. The ones who are already infected get

proper medical attention and are kept on regular checkups as the disease spreads

via direct transmissions. This is what is claimed, but the reality it seems is

far away from what is being shown.

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