Condom Distribution to Prisoners Advocated

Condom Distribution to Prisoners Advocated

Since studies show bans on sex among inmates in US jails are unenforceable, Washington State House representatives have filed legislation calling for a five-year STD prevention plan targeting prisons. Bill sponsor Rep. Jeannie Darneille (D-Tacoma) said she hopes it will re-start a conversation about providing inmates with protection.

The bill does not specify condom distribution, but that was one of the June 2006 recommendations of Gov. Chris Gregoire's advisory council on reducing STDs among prisoners. Gregoire himself has not stated a position.

Washington's Department of Corrections (DOC) does not require inmates to undergo HIV testing upon intake, so HIV figures are unknown for the population. However, DOC officials estimate the state's prison prevalence is lower than the US average for inmates. Nationally, the HIV rate among prisoners is five times that of the general population. About 30 percent of Washington inmates have hepatitis C virus infection.

"We don't have a lot of data, and we don't have a lot of plans for addressing this issue," said Darneille. "This bill tries to address that conundrum and establishes a process for the [DOC] and the Department of Health to work together in addressing this issue of transmission and the level of disease in the prison setting."

Citing a CDC study showing 91 percent of HIV-positive inmates surveyed in Georgia were infected before incarceration, DOC's health services director, Marc Stern, speculated that HIV transmission among state prisoners amounted to one new case per four to five years. Dr. Jeff Schouten, chair of the Governor's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, said he and other council members read the CDC data differently: "We thought the number of new infections was significant."

Stern is opposed to condom distribution and needle-exchange programs for IV drug users for fear of sending mixed messages and encouraging activities that are officially banned.

We are providing the above information as a public service only. Providing synopses of key scientific articles and lay media reports on HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases does not constitute endorsement. The above summaries were prepared without conducting any additional research or investigation into the facts and statements made in the articles being summarized, and therefore readers are expressly cautioned against relying on the validity or invalidity of any statements made in these summaries. This CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update also includes information from CDC and other government agencies, such as background on MMWR articles, fact sheets and announcements.

Most people infected with HIV carry the virus for years before manifesting AIDS. During that period, infected people will have few, if any, symptoms yet they can transmit the virus.
The percentage of women with AIDS has increased steadily, and the percentage of people infected heterosexually has also increased, surpassing the percentage infected through injecting drug use.
During 2001, there were 35575 newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates now that 40,000 new cases of HIV transmission occur every year.
Of the people infected with the virus of AIDS in the USA in the year 2001, 42% were whites, 37% blacks, 20% Hispanics and <1% Asians and Pacific Islanders and <1% American Indians and Alaska Natives.
During the 1990s, the HIV epidemic shifted steadily toward a growing proportion of AIDS cases in blacks and Hispanics and in women.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the cause of AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome). The presence of HIV in the body can be detected in several ways. The most common is the HIV-ELISA Antibodies test.

The HIV-ELISA looks for the body response to the virus manifested by the presence in your blood of Antibodies to HIV proteins. Antibodies are special proteins that our Immune System produce in response to the presence of HIV.

The test performed on your sample actually consists of two tests: a Screening test and a Confirmatory test. The screening test procedure is called an ELISA—Enzyme Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay or an EIA (Enzyme Immunosorbent Assay). The confirmatory test is used in the event your HIV-ELISA is positive and/or equivocal and is the procedure used is the Western Blot Assay (WB)

The screening and confirmatory tests are usually done using small samples of blood. If a sample of blood tests positive repeatedly in the screening test, it will be confirmed through the Western Blot test. People will be informed that they are infected with HIV only after both the screening and confirmatory tests have shown a positive (reactive) result.

Positive HIV antibody tests results are over 99% accurate when confirmed. Negative HIV antibody tests are over 99% accurate if it has been at least six months after a contact with a potentially HIV-infected partner. False negatives or false positives occur rarely.

Antibodies to HIV can be detected in the blood, in the urine or in the saliva. People produce antibodies with different speeds and therefore the time interval between infection and the development of antibodies to HIV can go from four weeks to six months from the exposure date or SDC ( Suspected Date of Contact). The appearance of antibodies in a blood or urine sample of a person which was known to be negative to HIV is called Seroconversion.

The HIV Elisa results are usually available in one or two business days.

THE WINDOW PERIOD

The time period between a person’s contact with the virus (infection) and when HIV antibodies become detectable in blood or other fluids is called the "window period". Most people will develop antibodies detectable within 4-6 weeks after infection with HIV. Some people may take longer; but nearly all (99%) will have antibodies by 6 months following infection. Therefore, the test may not be accurate if a person gets tested too soon after a potential exposure. People waiting six months from the time of the exposure before testing will have a 99% accurate test result. Until now there have been no studies showing antibodies present in people with longer than six months exposure to HIV.