Bangalore: The Bangalore Central Jail will soon get a counselling and testing facility for HIV positive persons as cases of HIV/AIDS seem to be going up in prisons across the State.

At the behest of the Department of Prisons, the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society has proposed to set up a Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (VCTC) at the jail. The Home Department has given the go-ahead for setting up the testing centre.

"HIV/AIDS is an issue of concern and the needs of HIV positive prisoners have to be looked into. For this reason, we requested the Health Department and the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) to establish a VCTC in at least one of the prisons in the State which would provide testing and counselling facilities," said S.T. Ramesh, Additional Director-General and Inspector-General of Police (Prisons).

VCTCs is a facility where testing for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases is done and the affected persons are counselled on coping with the disease and treatment.

The Prisons Department has also submitted an elaborate proposal to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) through KSAPS for funding an ambitious five-year project for testing, counselling, training, treatment and rehabilitation of those affected by HIV/AIDS persons, Mr. Ramesh told The Hindu.

According to KSAPS officials, the society has sought the approval of NACO for setting up the testing centre. "We are holding talks with NACO in this regard and shortly we are expecting to get information from them," a KSAPS official said.

The prevalence of HIV in the prisons of Karnataka is not a new phenomenon. According to a 1994 study done by the Kempe Gowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) here, two per cent of undertrials were suffering from HIV/AIDS.

"As part of the project, we want KSAPS to also take up a study to check the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in all the prisons in the State," Mr. Ramesh added.

However, according to an official in the Prisons Department, there were 28 HIV positive persons in prisons across the State of which three were women.

Some steps had already been taken to prevent discrimination in prisons and give the HIV positive persons in the prisons in the State a better quality of life.

The department had designated a dermatologist as the nodal officer for HIV/AIDS and she would be responsible for coordinating all such cases in the prisons across the State, he said.

"Recently, a training needs assessment was done for the prisons by a research scholar in collaboration with the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust. We have held training programmes for medical officers in the prisons. Training will be given to paramedical staff and also peer training for other prisoners so that they deal sensitively with prisoners who have HIV/AIDS," Mr. Ramesh said.

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