Women Prisoners and Female Partners of Male Prisoners
In many countries, women in prison, detention and rehabilitation centers lack access to basic health and HIV/AIDS information and services, including treatment and care for women living with HIV. Interventions are clearly needed for this population. A study in Sao Paolo, Brazil, found high pregnancy rates among the female sexual partners of young offenders in the prison system; demonstrating the need for condom distribution and sexuality education within prison systems (Yankah et al., 2006). A study found high rates of HIV among prison inmates in low- and middle-income countries. HIV prevalence was greater than 10% in prisons in 20 countries: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte D’Ivoire, Cuba, Estonia, Indonesia, Lithuania, Malawi, Malaysia, Romania, Rwanda, Slovakia, South Africa, Ukraine, Vietnam, Yemen and Zambia. Injecting drug use is common in prison populations and eight countries reported greater than 10% prevalence of IDUs in prison. HIV prevalence among IDU prisoners was found reported in eight countries and was greater than 10% in seven countries: China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Russian, and Serbia and Montenegro (Dolan et al., 2007). Interventions that address drug use and provide prevention education and condom use are urgently needed to reduce HIV risk among women prisoners and female partners of male prisoners.