After jails in Nagaon district of central Assam, five inmates at Silchar Central Jail have tested HIV positive. This includes two convicts and three undertrials who are undergoing compulsory trial. On October 29, four inmates of the nearby Karimganj District Jail also confirmed to be HIV positive, taking the count to nine in jails in Barak Valley and the figure is likely to rise further as reports of many are yet to be received.
Of the two convicts who tested HIV+ in Silchar Central Jail, one is a resident of Manipur while the other is a truck driver. “Truck drivers sometimes don’t use protection during sex. The person tested positive after coming here. The other person mentioned that he was involved in unprotected sex. They were both infected because their sexual activity was unsafe. On the other hand, three undertrials are drug addicts,” said Ashutosh Barman, Joint Health Director Cachar.
Earlier, a total of 85 inmates of Nagaon Central Jail and Special Jail were found to be HIV positive in September. Superintendent of Nagaon BP Civil Hospital, Dr LC Nath said that out of 85 inmates who were found to be Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV) positive, 45 are from Special Jail and 40 from Central Jail in Nagaon City. According to the Nagaon district health department sources, most of the HIV positive prisoners are injecting drug users and many indulge in the use of syringes from the users.
Anurag Goel, Principal Secretary, Health Department, had said that Assam State AIDS Control Society (ASACS) has detected a total of 20,085 HIV positive cases in Assam from 2002 to June 2021. Kamrup (Metro) district has the highest number of 6,888 people, followed by Cachar at 4,609 and Dibrugarh at 1,245.
“Due to the recent index testing of high-risk group (HRG) of people, districts like Morigaon, Nagaon and Nalbari have registered an increase in HIV cases. Though in the aforesaid districts, there was no high HIV prevalence earlier, index testing of prisoners (especially injecting drug users) in jails, cases have increased,” Goyal said.
The AIDS Control Department deals with the health issues of prison inmates. The team visits the Silchar Central Jail every six months and examines the prisoners. Meanwhile, five prisoners who tested positive have been kept in isolation, reducing the chances of further spread.
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