Lungu should consider releasing HIV positive inmates – PRISCCA

Mon, 12 Dec 2016 08:41:14 +0000

 

PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu should consider releasing all HIV positive patients from prisons because there are limited health services to attend to their health needs while incarcerated, says Prisons Care and Counseling Association executive director Godfrey Malembeka. 

Dr. Malembeka said it would be a great Christmas present and a true reflection of the festive season to both the prisoners and their families to have them released on the day commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ.

Recent revelations have showed that Zambian prisons have over 20 000 inmates confined in 8 000-capacity facilities across the country.

He said Zambian prisons have inadequate health service facilities coupled with poor diets which are unfavorable to the requirements of healthy living especially for people living with the virus.

Dr. Malembeka explained that the same forgiveness must be extended to the elderly and those with tuberculosis (TB) as the facilities do not support them due to the congestion in the holding facilities countrywide.

He said the move would also help to decongest the highly populated facilities where inmates were exposed to inhuman living conditions including shortage of beddings and uniforms.

The PRISCCA boss charged that with too many people sharing limited space, the contagious nature of TB made it impossible to prevent exposure of the inmates to the disease.

Early this year, the Zambia Correctional Services (ZCS) disclosed that over 27 percent of inmates were HIV positive when they called for increased collaboration with various stakeholders involved in the counseling and treatment services especially civil society organisations and international development agencies who could help with adequate mechanisms of interventions.

It was observed that the establishment of ZCS health directorate has scaled up the number of inmates accessing HIV counselling and testing services and access to anti-retroviral therapy (ART), but that there was need to find alternatives ways of providing adequate service.

The commissioner, however, expressed delight that 90 percent of the inmates were already aware of their HIV status with 65 percent currently on ART.

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