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| S.Africa Prisons Face Huge AIDS Challenge -Study |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 03/18/2003 |
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South Africa's overburdened prisons face a huge AIDS challenge, with an estimated 41% of inmates infected with HIV and limited strategies to fight its spread, a study released on February 25 said. South Africa, the country with the highest AIDS caseload in the world, is struggling with the epidemic on a number of fronts amid accusations of slow government response to the crisis. The research, presented by the independent Institute for Security Studies, pointed to a new AIDS disaster unfolding in the country's prisons, where about 180,000 people are held at any given time. 'Prison health is public health,' said researcher K.C. Goyer, noting that thousands of discharged prisoners return to society every month--bringing infections with them. 'Prisoners come from communities which have limited access to public health services, and these are the same communities to which they return.' South Africa has never conducted a full study of HIV prevalence in its prisons. Nationally, an estimated five million South Africans are infected with HIV, or about 20% of the total population. While prison officials have in the past sought to play down the extent of HIV in the prison population--suggesting at one point a prevalence rate as low as three percent--statistics tell a different story. Since 1995 reported cases of HIV/AIDS in South African prisons have jumped by 750%, albeit from a low baseline. Natural deaths in prison have surged by about 600% over the same period, and now stand at more than six-per-1,000 prisoners. Most of these are believed to be AIDS-related, largely from tuberculosis. Goyer estimated real HIV prevalence rate of about 41.5%, with that likely to rise even further in coming years. The disease's progress is being hastened by severe overcrowding in South African prisons. Facilities that were designed to hold 90,000 now house more than 180,000--in some cases with as many as 50 people in a cell. K.M. Mabena, acting director of medical services for the Department of Corrections, said officials were coming to grips with the problem by improving prisoner access to condoms, counselling, testing and treatment. But Mabena conceded the problem was daunting--particularly given South Africa's controversial government policy of discouraging use of antiretroviral drugs in the public sector. While prison medical staff seek to treat the infections that come with HIV, there is little they can do to combat the broad progress of the disease. 'The policy emphasizes early release of the terminally ill,' Mabena told an ISS seminar on study. 'Those who are fortunate are being returned home to die.' |
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