26 LUKSAR JAIL INMATES FOUND TO BE HIV POSITIVE

A recent health camp at the Luksar jail in Greater Noida has found that at least 26 of the 2,625 are HIV positive.

Prison officials said the tests were done across all jails in the state over the past few months following a government order. The tests in Luksar jail were done in the last week of September.

The health department has now started the treatment of these inmates, according to the HIV protocol, although officials are unsure whether these inmates were infected before being jailed or afterwards.

“Following the government order, HIV tests of all inmates were done in September and 26 were found to be positive. Before the test, we had four inmates who were positive. So, now, we have 30 HIV positive inmates and all are receiving treatment. The test was not done for inmates when they were brought in and so, we can’t be certain as to how or when they contracted the infection,” said Arun Pratap Singh, superintendent of Luksar jail.

Health officials said all HIV positive inmates have been registered with the anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centre at the district hospital in Sector 30.

“The centre provides medication free-of-charge and the treatment is usually lifelong. It is important to get screening done and start treatment at the earliest to keep the disease under control. The inmates are also given counselling, therapy and other sessions,” said Dr Sirish Jain, HIV nodal officer for Gautam Buth Nagar. He said all HIV patients in the district have to register with ART and Noida has 750 patients in all, and they are provided free treatment and counselling.

Recently, at least 140 inmates were found HIV positive at the Dasna jail in Ghaziabad, where more than 3,500 inmates are house. Sharing of needles, especially among drug addicts, is a common cause for HIV, and so, the disease usually has a high prevalence among jail inmates across the world.