Thirteen out of the 165 prisoners or eight per cent of Yerawada central prison who voluntarily underwent tests for HIV between October and December 2008 have turned out to be HIV positive. Eleven of those who have tested positive are male while two are female prisoners.

It may be recalled that as many as 32 patients had reportedly died due to AIDS in Yerawada between 2001 and 2006. This matter had been put before the High Court during the hearing of a bail application of another HIV positive prisoner serving a life sentence at Yerawada.

While the application was rejected last year, the issue came under the court’s scrutiny. The HC later followed it up with the order for a voluntary counselling and testing project to start in all the state-owned central prisons covering the 7,000-odd prisoners to check the spread of HIV.

Pune and Amravati were the first to start with the project in October 2008. Last week this was extended to prisons of Aurangabad, Nashik and Thane as well.

There are over 3,300 prisoners in Yerawada jail. If the first lot is a representative sample of what is to come, the prospects of a large number of prisoners at Yerawada turning out to be HIV positive cannot be ruled out.

Following the High Court intervention, the state government issued an order last year for initiating voluntary counselling and HIV testing for prisoners in Amravati and Pune prisons. The pilot project started in Yerawada on October 2 and is being conducted by the Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS).

... contd.