CDC finds most HIV-positive inmates infected before incarceration

Dyana Bagby:

The study found that those at highest risk for contracting HIV in Georgia's prisons include men who have sex with men; men who get a tattoo in prison; African Americans; inmates older than 26 and those who have served more than five years of their sentence.

From July 1988 through February 2005, a total of 88 male inmates were HIV negative when sentenced but then contracted HIV while in prison, according to the report.

Of these 88 inmates, 37 (or 42 percent) had had more than one negative HIV test result before their HIV diagnosis. And of these 88 inmates, the median age at time of HIV diagnosis was 32 years, 59 (or 67 percent) were black, and 29 (or 33 percent) were white.

CDC epidemiologist Patrick Sullivan, who led the study, said that of those 88 men contracting HIV in prison, their status was learned between 1992-2005 while one-half of them learned of their positive status between 2003-2005.

During 2003-2005, the Department of Corrections offered voluntary HIV testing, but then stopped it. The CDC is recommending the prison system re-implement the voluntary HIV testing based on data from this report, Sullivan added.

“We found it to be a really important program and it let prisoners learn their HIV status and we know that most people who find they are HIV positive take steps to reduce risk to their partners,” Sullivan said. “One-third of inmates said they used some kind of barrier — like rubber gloves or plastic wrap — which shows an interest on their part to want to have protected sex,” he said.

In October 2005, the Georgia Department of Correction housed 44,990 male inmates in 73 facilities. Average age of the inmates was 34. A total of 28,350 (or 63 percent) were black and 16,364 (or 36 percent) were white. A total of 856 inmates (nearly 2 percent ) were known to be HIV positive during the study.

Of that number, 780 (or 91percent) were infected before incarceration, and 732 (or 86 percent) were black, the report states.

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