HIV/AIDS numbers on the decline
Charlene Muhammad/Special to the NNPA from the Final Call
Issue date: 6/8/08 Section: Health
(NNPA) - HIV rates are declining in prison, according to the U. S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, but AIDS activists paint a different picture of the disease's prevalence both in and out of prison.
Laura M. Maruschak, a statistician for Bureau, studied statewide HIV rates for 2005 and 2006, and found that the number of HIV positive prisoners decreased by a little more than three percent (from 22,676 to 21,980). Despite this drop, the overall AIDS rate among prisoners was 0.46 percent compared to 0.17 percent for the U.S. general population.
The report, "HIV in Prisons 2006," further indicated that the number of AIDS-related deaths in state and federal prisons dropped to 167 from 203; and the states with the largest numbers of AIDS related deaths were Florida (28), New York (14), Pennsylvania (13), Georgia (10) and Louisiana (10).
The data does not include information on the flow of HIV positive inmates in and out of prisons, and the Justice Department has no idea of where inmates go when released, but is exploring ways to get that data. There are also times when some states fail to submit year-end data-mostly because states do not have the facilities to track the numbers, Maruschak told The Final Call.
"The bigger states are the ones that we always try to get no matter what. We force the issue and get some numbers because when a Georgia, Texas or California would drop out, you would see an artificial decrease. If we are talking about a small state reporting a small number, it doesn't affect the data," she said.
"The whole service community is saying the numbers are up," said Cynthia Davis, director of HIV Education & Outreach Programs for the Charles R. Drew University of Medical and Science. Her organization helps service some 15-20 prisons in California and many inmates have no clue of their HIV status because of a lack of mandatory testing of inmates.
"We don't know what the actual numbers are. At a recent training, a health professional estimated that there are 1,200 people in prisons who are HIV infected, but their internal numbers were upward of 3,000. That's a big discrepancy and we don't have a handle on the amount of prisoners in California or nationally who are infected or know their status," Davis said.
Laura M. Maruschak, a statistician for Bureau, studied statewide HIV rates for 2005 and 2006, and found that the number of HIV positive prisoners decreased by a little more than three percent (from 22,676 to 21,980). Despite this drop, the overall AIDS rate among prisoners was 0.46 percent compared to 0.17 percent for the U.S. general population.
The report, "HIV in Prisons 2006," further indicated that the number of AIDS-related deaths in state and federal prisons dropped to 167 from 203; and the states with the largest numbers of AIDS related deaths were Florida (28), New York (14), Pennsylvania (13), Georgia (10) and Louisiana (10).
The data does not include information on the flow of HIV positive inmates in and out of prisons, and the Justice Department has no idea of where inmates go when released, but is exploring ways to get that data. There are also times when some states fail to submit year-end data-mostly because states do not have the facilities to track the numbers, Maruschak told The Final Call.
"The bigger states are the ones that we always try to get no matter what. We force the issue and get some numbers because when a Georgia, Texas or California would drop out, you would see an artificial decrease. If we are talking about a small state reporting a small number, it doesn't affect the data," she said.
"The whole service community is saying the numbers are up," said Cynthia Davis, director of HIV Education & Outreach Programs for the Charles R. Drew University of Medical and Science. Her organization helps service some 15-20 prisons in California and many inmates have no clue of their HIV status because of a lack of mandatory testing of inmates.
"We don't know what the actual numbers are. At a recent training, a health professional estimated that there are 1,200 people in prisons who are HIV infected, but their internal numbers were upward of 3,000. That's a big discrepancy and we don't have a handle on the amount of prisoners in California or nationally who are infected or know their status," Davis said.
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