Two-day HIV testing camp at Central Jail

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 11

The National AIDS Control Organisation with the help of the Central government has launched an HIV prevention, treatment and care programme for Punjab prisons in association with Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA), a missionary organisation.

Under the programme a two-day HIV testing camp was organised on the premises of Amritsar Central Jail.

The programme was held by a team of EHA, headed by Dr Kanudeep Kaur, state programme coordinator, in collaboration with Punjab State AIDS Control Society.

Dr Kanudeep said the programme was launched at all the nine central jails in Punjab and Chandigarh in July last year. She said the HIV testing camps was being organised in all the prisons simultaneously. The main aim of the project was to provide treatment and care for those living with HIV/AIDS inside prisons equivalent to the general population, she added.

She said the national prison HIV strategy was being implemented in a phased manner in the country. Earlier, it was launched in North-Eastern states.

During the two-day testing programme, which ended today, as many as 1,000 prisoners were tested. Dr Kanudeep said the camp was aimed at increasing awareness about the deadly disease. A nukkad natak was also presented on the central jail premises to make prisoners aware about ill effects of the disease, besides the medication and preventive measures to be taken.

Dr Kanudeep said it was important to reduce the stigma and discrimination among prison inmates. She added that prison inmates required more health care that those outside. She said the EHA prison intervention teams from Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, ART and ICTC Amritsar also assisted in achieving the target. Kulwant Singh, DSP, Amritsar Central Jail, said out of the 3,500 inmates in the prison 60 were HIV positive.