HIV tests conducted for Arunachal Pradesh jail inmates

Arunachal Pradesh State AIDS Control Society today conducted HIV tests of 118 inmates of the Papum Pare district jail here, IGP (Prisons) Satyendra Garg said. Garg, at whose initiative the project was launched, was the first to undergo the HIV testing.

Of the 133 inmates of the jail, 118 including seven women underwent the test. The testing programme was preceded by a counselling session for all jail officials and inmates in the jail campus for creating awareness on HIV/AIDS and the relevance of AIDS testing, Garg said.

Numerous queries from the participants were responded to by Arunachal Pradesh State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) deputy director Tasor Pali. "Come out of the social stigma against HIV/AIDS infected persons who are part of the society. Instead of boycotting or rejecting, accepting them socially would do more good to them," Pali said before Garg offered to be the first to be tested that evoked keen interest among the inmates.

They queued up for the voluntary test conducted by a six-member team including technicians and counsellors. If anyone was detected with HIV virus, it would be kept a secret and the person concerned would counselled to go for treatment, said Deputy Director, Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC), Dr A Borang.

Of the total 13 lakh population, the APSACS has so far conducted HIV testing for about 2.8 lakh population and 240 were detected HIV positive cases.