Six Assam central jails get ART centres for HIV+ prisoners

The state health department, with the help of Assam State AIDS Control Society (ASACS), on Monday, inaugurated Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) centres in six central jails, to cater to the medical needs of HIV positive prisoners.

State health minister Keshav Mahanta inaugurated the ART centres on Monday. The centres would cater to nearly 200 HIV positive convicts, and undertrial prisoners, lodged in Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur and Nagaon central jails. “The inmates who are infected with HIV/AIDS will get free medical services including therapy,” Mahanta said after inaugurating the centres.

According to ASACS, 200 HIV positive jail inmates had already registered so far with the ART centres for treatment, of which 145 patients were from the injecting drug users (IDUs) community. At present, only 120 patients were on active care at the ART centres, 105 were IDUs and on ART treatment.

“Most of the HIV positive patients residing in the jails are linked and registered with the ART Centres. But due to security reasons, all the inmates cannot visit the ART centres on a regular basis. This affects their medication as per the protocol. In order to overcome this problem, it was decided to open the ART centres in the six central jail premises,” the ASACS said in a statement.

ASACS project director Pomi Baruah said that Assam became the fifth state to have ART dispensation centres in jails.

The ART is playing a major role in providing treatment to People Living with HIV-AIDS (PLHIV), under the National AIDS Control Programme. In Assam, there are nine ART and eight link ART centres functioning in medical colleges and district civil hospitals.

“On proper adherence to the treatment, PLHIVs are getting virally suppressed, the stage where there is a least chance for transmission of HIV. This results in a decrease of new infections,” the society said.