Health News
UN chief torture expert says prisons act as HIV incubators
Jul 23, 2010, 11:51 GMT
Vienna - HIV spreads from prisons to the wider population because of misguided policies in most countries, the chief UN expert on torture, Manfred Nowak, warned Friday in Vienna.
The rate of infected people tends to be much higher in prisons than in the rest of population, the Austrian UN rapporteur on torture and inhuman punishment said on the last day of the 18th International AIDS Conference.
'We have 30 million persons that enter and leave prisons every year in the world,' he said. 'So it means it's not just a prison health problem, it's a public health problem.'
Nowak called on governments to distribute condoms, and adopt needle exchange and drug substitution programmes for detainees.
Only 11 countries, most of them European, currently have programmes for needle exchange.
In Indonesian prisons, the HIV rate is 21 per cent, compared to the 0.2 per cent national average.
In the Ukraine, up to 30 per cent of prisoners carry the virus, compared to 1.6 per cent of the general population.
Currently, politicians and civil societies lacked the will to help prisoners, Nowak said. 'As soon as you are behind bars, society is no longer interested in how you are treated.'
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Health
- 1. US Supreme Court to decide fate of healthcare law
- 2. Obama's health law hangs in balance with skeptical court
- 3. Supreme Court begins hearing on Obama's landmark health law
- 4. China vows to end transplants from executed prisoners
- 5. Nordic walking a simple way to get fit
Older Talkback
