Jail shocker: Over 140 prisoners diagnosed with HIV

Ghaziabad: Over 140 inmates of Ghaziabad’s Dasna district jail have been diagnosed with HIV

 According to government directives, all prisoners are screened for HIV before being lodged in jail.

The inmates at Ghaziabad Jail are checked by doctors of the Antiretroviral therapy center located in MMG district government hospital, Superintendent, of district jail, Alok Kumar Singh said.

In 2016, the State Aids Control Society organized HIV screening camps in jails.

At that time, 49 prisoners were found to have been infected with HIV in the Ghaziabad jail.

After that, the government made HIV and TB tests a part of general health check-ups, compulsory to undergo for all new inmates.

If an inmate is diagnosed with HIV, he or she is provided ARV treatment at the Integrated Counselling and Treatment Centre (ICTC) located inside the jail.

Currently, around 5,500 inmates are lodged in Ghaziabad jail against a capacity of 1,706 inmates. “Out of 5,500 inmates 140 are HIV positive and 35 of them also have TB. An average of 120 to 150 HIV-positive inmates are living in the jail since 2016,” Singh said.