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ICRC: death cases reduced in anti-TB colony of Azerbaijani penitentiaries

19 March 2010 16:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Kamala Guliyeva â€“ APA. Attempts to stem the alarming spread of tuberculosis (TB) across the globe are likely to fall well short of whatâ€™s needed unless authorities in affected countries significantly increase their efforts to stop the deadly disease from breeding inside prisons, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

â€œTuberculosis is a silent killer that canâ€™t be confined to a cell. Itâ€™s smart, resilient and growing deadlier by the day,â€ said the ICRCâ€™s health in detention coordinator, Raed Aburabi, ahead of World TB Day, which will be observed on 24 March. â€œIt has adapted faster than we could have possibly imagined to existing treatments, resulting in a major increase in multi and extremely drug-resistant strains, which pose a very real threat. TB can only be stopped outside prisons if it is tackled from within. One in three people on the planet is infected with the microbes that cause TB and, of those two billion people, one in ten will become sick with the disease at some stage in their lives. Wrongly considered by many as an illness of the past, TB is making a comeback worldwide and kills, on average, one person every 20 seconds. Owing to overcrowding, poor nutrition and inadequate health services, jails provide a perfect place for the airborne illness to thrive and spread. The incidence of TB inside prisons can be anywhere from 10 to 40 times higher than outside but, because it is very contagious, the disease can be easily transmitted to guards, staff, visitors and the families of infected, released detaineesâ€.

The ICRC has been working with the detaining authorities in around a dozen countries, including Azerbaijan and Georgia, for more than a decade to bring TB under control.

â€œWhen we started visiting prisons in Azerbaijan 15 years ago, we discovered that TB was killing around 300 inmates every year. Regardless of the crime they committed, many ended up with a death sentence,â€ said Nikoloz Sadradze of the ICRCâ€™s delegation in Baku. â€œBy last year, the number of deaths at the countryâ€™s centralized TB prison hospital had fallen to 20, thanks to prevention measures, improved screening and diagnosis, and medically supervised treatment and follow-up.â€