HARARE - Following immense pressure from rights and activists groups calling for a sound health delivery system for inmates, the government has begun consulting health experts on the formulation of an HIV and Tuberculosis policy for prisons, a health official has said.The Deputy Director for AIDS/TB programmes Dr Charles Sunday said, We are currently working towards formulating an HIV and TB policy framework specifically for prisons. We have already set a team of health experts going around prisons to come up with a situational report.
The report will be used when drafting the TB and HIV policy.
He added that the mortality in prisons was very high mostly due to HIV related illnesses.
A high number of HIV related deaths have been recorded in prisons as inmates remain vulnerable to HIV and Aids and other opportunistic diseases since they are not provided with proper health care. We have already secured maximum support in terms of drugs for prisoners, said Dr Sunday.
This comes at a time when most inmates are being denied their right to health care, where prisoners die-mostly due to HIV related illnesses after failing to access treatment.
This is because prison health systems run independently. Although government health institutions provide drugs, they dont have direct authority over the health of inmates, hence the call for a sound HIV/TB policy for prisons.
Meanwhile, the health ministry made a preposition to distribute condoms in prisons as a HIV prevention strategy since a high HIV transmission has been recorded.
The exercise has been stalled since the cabinet has been given the task to cabinet, at a time when most politicians have publicly condemned the preposition citing it as an indirect way of promoting homosexuality in prisons.
Post published in: Politics