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197 AIDS patients in Punjab prisons: report

* NGO says dilapidated condition creates problems for prisoners

By Aamir Yasin

RAWALPINDI: There are 197 prisoners suffering from HIV and AIDS in prisons across Punjab, including 30 in the Central Adiala Jail, said Ulfat Hussain Kazmi, president of the Global Foundation, on Monday while sharing his non-governmental organisation’s annual report on prisoners’ health condition with Daily Times.

He said the Punjab Home Department had conducted medical tests of 32,464 prisoners in 29 prisons across the province on the directives of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry when he visited various prisons two months ago. He said test reports of 26,328 prisoners had been received, according to which, 197 prisoners had tested positive to HIV/AIDS. He said 384 prisoners suffered from tuberculosis (TB), 3,464 from hepatitis-C and 1,002 from hepatitis-B.

Kazmi said out of the 197 HIV/AIDS patients, 77 were in Lahore’s Central Jail, 16 in Lahore’s District Jail, 44 in Mandi Bahuddin, 30 in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail and 30 in the Attock Jail. He said there were 55 HIV/AIDS patients in prisons across Sindh, including 21 in Larkana jail and 34 in the Karachi Central Jail.

He said the Home Department had failed to conduct medical tests in the prisons of Muzaffargarh, Gujrat, Gujranwala and Dera Ghazi Khan, while it also failed to conduct the test of a juvenile prisoner in the Bhawalpur jail.

Kazmi said out of the 5,987 prisoners in Adiala Jail, the Home Department had conducted medical tests of 3,500 prisoners. However, he said, test reports of 1,872 prisoners had been received, which revealed 97 prisoners were suffering from TB, 34 from hepatitis-B, 249 from hepatitis-C and 30 were HIV positive.

Problems: He said the dilapidated condition of prisons across the province created problems for healthy prisoners, adding most of the prisons lacked medical facilities.

Kazmi alleged that prison hospitals only entertained prisoners who could pay the hospital charges while poor prisoners were denied medical facilities.

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