Correctional services department sheds light on HIV/AIDS in jails

South Africa's department of correctional services set the record straight on Friday about it being "in the dark" over the impact of HIV/AIDS on prison inmates.

Dismissing reports that the number of HIV-positive prisoners remained unknown to officials, the department's deputy commissioner for communications, Manelisi Wolela, said the facts had been misconstrued.

"The media's claims were based on the findings and turnout of our recent pilot survey on the prevalence of HIV among staff and inmates at four facilities in Gauteng province," Wolela told PlusNews.

Although the turnout had been low for the pilot study - 67 staff and 766 offenders - this was only a preparation for the department's national survey, to be launched at the beginning of October with the assistance of the US President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

PEPFAR is a $15-billion initiative for the prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean.

Wolela said the survey would help give a clearer understanding of the prevalence rate in the country's 240 places of incarceration and help his department implement the necessary interventions on prevention, care and treatment in facilities that had not yet been reached.

The effects of the pandemic on the country's prisons, and the provision of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to inmates, made headlines as a result of the recent court battle between correctional services and Aid activists over a lack of access to ARVs at Westville Prison, in the east-coast city of Durban.

However, Wolela said the media's handling of the situation might have clouded public perception of what his department had already achieved in tackling the pandemic in prisons.

"We managed to enrol 1 960 HIV-positive inmates in our anti-AIDS programmes, and of that total number at least 800 are using ARVs - up from 220 just under a year ago. So we have made some headway in addressing the needs of offenders, as well as establishing more prison-based ARV sites," he said.

There were currently four accredited prison-based ARV sites: Grootvlei Prison in Free State Province; Pietermaritzburg Prison just outside Durban; Qalakabusha Prison at Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal Province, and St Alberts Prison in the Western Cape.

Wolele confirmed that the situation at Westville Prison was receiving attention and the facility was being assessed as the department's fifth accredited site.

Known cases of infection reflected that just 5 percent of inmates were living with HIV/AIDS, but the department expected the upcoming national survey to raise the prevalence rate above that of the general public, estimated at over 20 percent.

This item is delivered to the English Service of the United Nations' Humanitarian Information Service but, may not necessarily reflect the views of the UN.