Volume : 7, Issue : 8, August - 2018

Prevalence of HIV infection among the prison inmates in West Bengal

Dr. Suman Ganguly, Dr. Dipendra Narayan Goswami, Dr. Debjit Chakraborty, Sumita Samanta, Jaydip Jana

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;Background Prison inmatess are at especially high risk of HIV infections as a consequence of risk factors that are in</p> <div>play both before incarceration and once in prison where there are frequent opportunities for further transmission</div> <div>to the other prison inmates. This is most likely due to indulgence to risk behaviour like homosexuality and injecting drug user.</div> <div>Objective: To compare HIV prevalence among the prison inmates of West Bengal with HIV prevalence of general population in the state</div> <div>taking HIV prevalence of the pregnant women as proxy indicators and also to compare with at risk non pregnant general individual.</div> <div>Methods: HIV testing was carried out for prison inmates for randomly sampled prisons in the state of West Bengal during 2016-17 and the</div> <div>positivity was compared with HIV positivity among the pregnant women (proxy indicators for HIV positivity among general population)</div> <div>from the program data using odd ratios, upper and lower level of con􀃶dence intervals and P values. The positivity among the prison inmates</div> <div>was also compared with positivity data for the same period for non pregnant general individuals who are considered at risk.</div> <div>Results: HIV positivity for prison inmates was found to be signi􀃶cantly higher (0.62 per 100) compared to HIV positivity in general</div> <div>population (0.02 per 100) in West Bengal. The difference between positivity among the general population at risk (0.79 per 100) and that of</div> <div>prison inmates does not show any signi􀃶cance.</div> <div>Conclusion: HIV positivity among the prison inmates is signi􀃶cantly higher than general population and comparable with at risk non</div> <div>pregnant general individuals. Therefore, HIV prevention services need to be strengthened at prison level.</div>