Advertise With UsAdvertise on our extensive network of industry websites and newsletters.
Get the PBR newsletterSign up to our free email to get all the latest PBR
news.The World Health Organization has called for a review of healthcare in prisons following the publication of a report which highlights the growing problem of infectious disease transmission in prisons.
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Health problems in prisons are abundant. Not only do many prisoners already suffer from health problems on entering prison, but the experience of being incarcerated can easily exacerbate these problems, and indeed expose inmates to infection.
According to medical journal The Lancet, in parts of Europe and the USA, up to one-fifth of prisoners are HIV-positive, and in some detention centres TB infection rates are 100 times that of the civilian population.
The majority of current strategies for dealing with HIV in prisons involve zero-tolerance approaches to drug users, but escalating rates of infection indicate that this method is inadequate. Governments have however so far been reluctant to give their stamp of approval to alternative approaches.
The WHO has suggested that the failure to put harm-reducing measures in place wastes a key opportunity to improve the health of the prison population, which also represents a market for pharmaceuticals manufacturers and other healthcare professionals.