Ninety per cent of prisoners in Russia are ill?
In places of deprivation of liberty in Russia there are 795,000 persons suffering from various diseases, according to a representative of the Federal Prison Service of Russia Alla Kuznetsova.
Given that as of 1 November 2008, the penal institutions system held 891.7 thousand persons, approximately 90 per cent of detainees are ill, emphasises Newsru.
'Of these, 340 thousand persons are suffering from socially significant diseases, 25 thousand are disabled persons of various categories,' stated Deputy Head of the Medical Department of the Federal Prison Service of Russia Alla Kuznetsova at a press conference. Furthermore, more than 150 thousand patients suffer from drug addiction or have various mental disorders, reports Interfax.
Currently, the priority areas of activity for the Medical Department of the Federal Prison Service are the prevention and control of tuberculosis and HIV infections, Kuznetsova acknowledged. According to her, in recent years it is no longer possible to say that 'prison is a breeding ground for tuberculosis and other infectious diseases', since the number of tuberculosis sufferers and HIV-infected persons in the penal system now depends on the development of this epidemic among the general population across Russia.
Every year, more than 20,000 tuberculosis patients enter the penal system, of which 7 thousand learn of their diagnosis for the first time upon entering places of confinement.
'Many of them have never come to the attention of civilian healthcare. Most of them, upon entering penal institutions, have severe forms of the disease,' explained Alla Kuznetsova.
The epidemiological situation regarding tuberculosis in the Russian Federation has been stabilised thanks to the successful work of tuberculosis specialists in the penal system, according to the Deputy Head of the Medical Department of the Federal Prison Service.
However, notes a Federal Prison Service representative, one serious problem in the medical and social rehabilitation of persons with tuberculosis is that sometimes patients receiving treatment in penal institutions are unable to continue rehabilitation upon release from places of deprivation of liberty.
Russia currently has no law on social rehabilitation of persons released from places of deprivation of liberty.
At the same time, Alla Kuznetsova reported a sharp increase in the number of HIV-infected persons held in places of deprivation of liberty.
'Over the past ten years, their number has increased tenfold. I remember 1994, when the penal system had only seven HIV-infected persons; today there are 48,000, which constitutes 11 per cent of the total number of persons with this disease registered in the Russian Federation,' emphasised the Deputy Head of the Medical Department of the Federal Prison Service.