EN

Staff Writer

The Executive Director of the Prison Care and Counselling Association

(PRISCCA) in Zambia, Dr Godfrey Malembeka, has warned that HIV epidemics in the world's prisons can fuel epidemics in mainstream communities unless steps are taken to safeguard the health of prisoners.

Dr Malembeka sounded the warning while addressing a Consultative Capacity Development Session for Zambian Civil Society Organisations working on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, HIV and AIDS. The session sought to map out a strategy for engaging the Parliament of Zambia.

 

Noting that the African continent was the hardest hit by the global HIV and AIDS epidemic, Dr Malembeka bemoaned the fact that prison settings in Sub-Saharan Africa had received "surprisingly little" attention in terms of national and international funding to respond to the epidemic.

PRISCCA represents thousands of serving and ex-prisoners in Zambia. Dr Malembeka is an ex-prisoner, having spent four years in jail. Thereafter he spent 16 years working closely with the Government of Zambia on efforts to rehabilitate ex-prisoners. He therefore, boasts of a wealth of experience in issues that affect prisoners or when they leave detention.

He said PRISCCA submits related reports to the Parliament of Zambia twice a year. The organisation also uses Parliament Radio to discuss issues that affect prisoners. It takes MPs out for a retreat every year to further debate those issues. Additionally, PRISCCA takes MPs on visits to some of the country's correctional facilities so that the lawmakers witness first-hand the challenges in those settings.

He said the SADC Region alone had approximately 650 000 incarcerated people, 19 000 of those in Zambia.

Stressing that good prison health was equal to good public health, Dr Malembeka warned that unless steps were taken to keep prisoners healthy, the health of people outside prisoners would be in jeopardy.

"HIV in prison is both a public health and a human rights issue. It is also a legal issue and there are myths and stigma, surrounding incarceration," he said.

He cited overcrowding and poor physical conditions in most prisons as major challenges in HIV prevention.

With prison populations being predominantly male, Dr Malembeka said male-to-male sexual activities were frequent.

"There are three types of sexual activities in prisons. The first is consensual, where a few people have agreed to live like that because some are there for life or serving more than 30 years."

The second type was rape, which was fuelled by prisoners that preyed on juveniles or the weak.

"The third type is circumstantial sex. Sometimes because of overcrowding, male prisoners end up naked and squeezed close together in such a way that some 'dreams' can come," he explained.

He called for research to determine the levels of sexual activities in prisons, saying much of it was not reported and therefore not documented.

"Potential links for transmitting HIV from prisons into the general population are high due to stigma, marriage break ups and lack of partner notification."

Dr Malembeka said lack of knowledge and education among prisoners about the risks of contracting and transmitting HIV coupled with the absence of protective means and proper medical care, increased prisoners' risks to HIV infection.

Women prisoners

"Most of our sisters who are incarcerated are divorced in advance because (few people) are ready to wait for their spouses."

He said over half a million women and girls were being held in penal institutions worldwide.

"Women are especially vulnerable to sexual exploitation and may trade or be forced to trade sex for food, goods or drugs with other prisoners or staff," he said.

Turning to factors that contribute to HIV in prisons and that MPs could examine, Dr Malembeka cited weaknesses of the criminal justice system, overcrowding, poor food and nutrition as well as lack of health care and lack of follow up on released prisoners.

Others included poor adherence to ART treatment, lack of prevention commodities such as condoms the mixing of pre-trial detainees, juveniles and convicted people.

SEYCHELLES - Needle exchange must be accepted in the fight against HIV/Aids! 
This was one of the main conclusions from a focus group discussion which was held in November at the National Assembly on Ile du Port. 

The discussion was led by Professor Timothy Quinlan, a course director at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

Professor Quinlan is also a consultant for the South African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF). He was in Seychelles conducting a HIV/Aids and governance programme baseline study. The aim of his visit was to collect baseline information which will result in a better HIV/Aids advocacy policy for SADC parliamentarians.


Among the audience were the local World Health Organisation (WHO) representative Dr Cornelia Atsyor, the chairperson of the National Aids Council Dr Anne Gedeon, National Assembly staff, journalists and representatives from different work organisations. 

Professor Quinlan concentrated the discussion around the practices and trends which should be monitored in the fight against the HIV/Aids pandemic. 

He emphasised that continuous monitoring is important as even if the figures tend to show that only a small number of people here are infected and affected, the prevalence rate is too high for Seychelles. 

Delegates identified social ills as the main causes to the spread of HIV/Aids and other diseases such as different forms of hepatitis. Those include prostitution, drug and alcohol abuse, as well as multiple partnerships. They agreed that the spread of communicable diseases puts pressure on the health system and on the country's economy in general. 

They also raised other concerns linked to HIV/Aids such as school drop-outs, teenage pregnancy, under use of health facilities, a general culture of patients not taking their medicine, non-access to contraceptives for girls under 18 years of age without parental consent and sometimes poor data collection. 

On the last note it was observed that contact tracing is done as a form of monitoring. However, some patients do not or take time to admit their practices like homosexuality and drug addiction. 

The strong point of the meeting was the seemingly unanimous agreement that needle exchange among hard drug users must be accepted as a means of protection against HIV/Aids and hepatitis. Some doctors have expressed discontent over their inability to offer a syringe to a patient, when they know that he or she will go and share one with a potentially infected friend immediately after leaving the clinic. 

They have agreed that Seychelles has very good legislation where HIV/Aids is concerned, but there is a gap to be filled in this area. 

It has been some time now since various HIV/Aids activists and concerned organisations have been calling for the introduction of a needle and syringe programme (NSP) or syringe-exchange programme (SEP). This is a health service that allows injecting drug users (IDUs) to obtain needles at little or no cost. 

It is based on the philosophy of harm reduction that attempts to reduce the risk factors for diseases such as HIV/Aids and hepatitis. While NSPs provide most or all equipment free of charge, exchange programmes require users to return their used syringes to be exchanged for new ones. 
A comprehensive 2004 study by the WHO found a "compelling case that NSPs substantially and cost effectively reduce the spread of HIV among IDUs and do so without evidence of increasing the level of injecting drug use." 

These programmes exist in most European countries and in the United States. Others like Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Iran and neighbouring Mauritius have also adopted them. 

The meeting with professor Quinlan also focused on other solutions to the spread of HIV/Aids. These include systematic use of condoms, prevention campaign among young people who are not yet sexually active and who have not had contact with drugs, more awareness through songs and other forms of art, targeting specific areas such as prisons and putting into place a HIV/Aids workplace policy. 

As Seychelles does not benefit from the Global Fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria because of its high GDP, alternative funding must be sought.

 

*This article, which was slightly edited, was first published on: http://www.nation.sc/article.html?id=243781

  • Click to enlarge image 1.jpgClick to enlarge image 1.jpg
  • Click to enlarge image 2.jpgClick to enlarge image 2.jpg
  •  

Windhoek - Civil Society Organisations, United Nations agencies and other partners are working with the SADC Parliamentary Forum to hold the first ever Women's Parliament in Mahe, Seychelles next week from Wednesday to Thursday.

The organisers say the Women's Parliament will bring together SADC women members of parliament, and their counterparts from other parts of the world, to critically discuss and sustain the engagement of parliaments to implement Resolution 60/2 of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW).

The resolution focuses on women, the girl-child and HIV and Aids, which is still a major grim reaper claiming countless lives.

Through Resolution 60/2, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) calls on governments, international partners and civil society to give full attention to the high levels of new HIV infections among young women and adolescent girls, and their root causes.

As the Report of the United Nations' Global Commission on HIV and the Law noted almost exactly five years ago, such root causes include a country's body of laws concerning HIV and Aids.

The evidence indicates that an enabling legal environment, including one that ensures both the legal and practical equality of women and girls, is much more likely to result in lower rates of HIV infection than a punitive one that enshrines historical inequalities.

The SADC Parliamentary Forum is the deliberative body that brings together 14 National Parliaments in the SADC Region to discuss common issues affecting the SADC region as well as to support the regional integration agenda.

The Model Law guarantees the respect for human rights principles, rejects coercive approaches, addresses the root causes of vulnerability to infection and ensures the protection of members of vulnerable and marginalised groups.

About Us

The Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) was established in 1997 in accordance with Article 9 (2) of the SADC Treaty as an autonomous institution of SADC It is a regional inter-parliamentary body composed of Thirteen (14) parliaments representing over 3500 parliamentarians in the SADC region. Read More

Contact us

Address: ERF 578, Love Street off Robert Mugabe Avenue Windhoek, Namibia

Tel: (+264 61) 287 00 00

Email: