HIV infection rate worries prison authorities

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HIV infection rate worries prison authorities

10:55 CAT | 19 Dec 2017

In file CoM

Eighteen percent of prison officials in the country are HIV positive, according to a study carried out in 2013 by Ministries of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs and Health with financial support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The information was provided recently in Chimoio, Manica, by the General Director of the National Penitentiary Service, Domingos Nhame Muaquina, according to whom the study also found that 24 percent of Mozambique’s prison inmates were infected with HIV/Aids and 1.5 percent with tuberculosis.

The figures, Muaquina said, were of concern to the government authorities, which is why the Ministry of Health was preparing a biological and behavioural survey of the prison population with a view to updating its appreciation of the seroprevalence situation in penal establishments across the country.

Data indicate that from January to September 2017, 2,058 HIV/Aids cases were recorded in a total of 19,000 prisoners, compared to 1,691 in the same period the previous year. He added that, of these, 1,668 were on antiretroviral treatment, against 1,361 in 2016.

During the period under review, 147 were diagnosed with the disease on their entry into the penal establishments, against 191 in 2016.

Muaquina acknowledged that penitentiary health was one of the National Penitentiary Service’s priority pillars, and based on respect for the human person, according to the constitution of the Republic and international law. The study in question, he said, was a corollary of the National and International Agenda on Human Rights.

He added that it was imperative to perceive the health of detainees and condemned as a social issue and not merely biological, because, he argued, it was related to rights already recognized, such as minimum standards for treatment of prisoners, prevention, care and support for HIV/aids, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and sexually transmitted infections in the Southern African Development Community region.

The SERNAP General Director revealed that Mozambique had about 19,000 prisoners, of whom 97 per cent were young males, constituting a huge challenge for the institution he headed. In view of this, educational programmes for the adoption of healthy behaviour in prisons were sorely needed.

Source: Notícias