● <B>The Prime minister announced recently in Parliament that nearly one prisoner out of four is HIV-positive. This seems alarmingly high?</B>

The rate is in line with international trends. But Mauritius does possess an important particularity. In most countries, the prison population is mainly made of vulnerable groups. In Mauritius however, the great majority of prisoners are incarcerated for drug-related offences. And the main driver of HIV infections here is intravenous drug use. In fact, 82% of new cases can be attributed to it. The problem of drugs in prison is not a new one. I must say that surveillance does seem to have improved though.

The fact that nearly a quarter of the country?s prison inmates are HIV-positive is worrying for another reason. The spread of tuberculosis, which we call an opportunistic infection, is also preoccupying. The disease is airborne and can easily be spread by coughing as prisoners live in close contact. I would also like to know whether HIV-positive tuberculosis sufferers are receiving adequate care. Tuberculosis precipitates the onset of HIV/ AIDS and vice versa.

● <B>The policy of segregating HIV-positive prisoners from the general prison population is very controversial. Do you think that isolating HIV-prisoners in the New Wing in Beau-Bassin prison is a good way of stemming the disease? </B>

No, I don?t. It is highly discriminatory to segregate HIV-positive inmates from the general prison population and it completely contravenes the concept of human rights. The way the prison authorities have gone about it is also problematic. Everyone knows the New Wing is reserved for HIV-positive prisoners. By incarcerating someone there, you?re basically telling all his/her friends and family that the person is HIV-positive. This lack of confidentiality is worrying.

It?s simply not acceptable to have a separate penal environment for infected prisoners. The message that you?re sending out is that they?re going to contaminate other inmates. This is not true. However, sexual intercourse always has and always will occur in prisons. Are condoms being made available to the inmates?

● <B>This also has other health implications. Is it true that by having intercourse, HIV-positive prisoners only accelerate the progression of the disease? </B>

It is. But there is another facet to this problem. Take two HIV-positive prisoners who have unprotected sexual intercourse. If one of them has HIV-1 and the other HIV-1 subtype B then it is possible that they will develop a resistance to their medication and even anti-retroviral drugs.

● <B>Prisoners also have difficulties to adapt to life after jail. In your opinion, what sort of structure needs to be put into place to facilitate their reinsertion into society? </B>

Prisoners must be taught that there is a life after prison. Prisons now offer many training programmes, such as computer literacy courses. Inmates must be encouraged to follow such programmes. The groupe Elan, which is a NGO, has been helping prisoners to prepare for their reinsertion into society. The feedback on that front has been very positive.

It?s also up to society as a whole to change its attitudes. Ex-prisoners face another problem in the form of the Certificate of Morality, which they need to obtain a job. The authorities will have to clarify their position on this question and find a solution as soon as possible.

<I>?It is highly discriminatory to segregate HIV-positive inmates from the general prison population and it totally contravenes the concept of human rights.?</I>

● <B>The needle exchange programme has been lauded as a big step forward in the fight against HIV/ AIDS. Doesn?t its coverage need to be vastly increased if it is to have a meaningful impact on the infection rate? </B>

Indeed, coverage does need to be increased. Society also needs to be educated about and prepared for the needle exchange programme. A lot of people still think that it will encourage people to use drugs. It?s definitely not enough to just pass new laws. More social workers will need to be trained about needle exchange.

HIV/AIDS concerns everyone. Information about the epidemic, its modes of transmission and how can it be prevented, should be made more readily available. A lot of good work has been done in schools and colleges across the country. Many young people know how the disease is transmitted and how to avoid contracting it. The big problem now is that many of the people living with the disease don?t know that much about it. What is being done to inform them about secondary prevention in order to detect the disease at an early stage and stop its progression? Information campaigns should target these people.

Moreover, we have to stop stigmatizing HIV-positive people. It doesn?t stop the disease from spreading. It only isolates its victims. How else do you explain that thirty years after the first case was declared, only a handful of people speak openly about being HIV-positive?

● <B>How serious is the problem among the student population? </B>

It?s hard to say how many students are infected. What we do know however is that people in the 15-29 age group are the most vulnerable. Once again, the authorities need to be more sensitized about the issue. For example, it?s not realistic that one has to be 18 or older to get an AIDS test. It?s hard to imagine a 16 or 17-year old asking his/her parents to accompany him/her for such a test.