|
|
 |
HIV/AIDS prison strategy rollout
Mbongeni Zondi. 09 May 2003. The Mercury. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
|
KwaZulu-Natal's 40 prisons are housing 1 000 known HIV/AIDS cases among their 30 000 inmate population, some of whom are terminally ill.
Zodwa Dlamini, head of HIV/AIDS in the provincial department of correctional services, was speaking in Pietermaritzburg yesterday at the launch of a strategy to deal with the problem.
Dlamini said the department was now increasingly dealing with terminally ill HIV/AIDS patients being discharged from hospitals because of the shortage of bed space.
This had led to a high concentration of terminally and seriously ill patients in the urban area-based prisons, as they had 24-hour healthcare facilities.
She said it was imperative for the department to take a proactive role because the majority of the prisoners were incarcerated for a short period and then returned to their communities.
Dlamini said the launch of the strategy could not have taken place at a more opportune time.
"First, we are ready for the imminent rollout of the programme piloted at the Westville prison and all our forum members have or are about to undergo training.
"Second, with the new departmental policy of a unit-based system, where prison warders are based in specific units with the same prisoners, we intend to take advantage of that and use them (warders) to drive the programme," she said. |
| Was this article helpful to you? |
 ?0%???? ?0%
|
|
Back
|
|
|
|
