AIDS prisoner in critical condition

Pakistani health officials are trying to gain access to a Nigerian man dying of AIDS in a prison in Punjab Province where there is only limited access to health facilities. "We have asked to get permission to see him and send people in so that we can get him moved," Asma Bokhari, the national programme manager for the AIDS control programme in the Pakistani, capital Islamabad, told IRIN on Friday. The case was highlighted in Pakistan's daily Dawn newspaper earlier this week, prompting health officials to take action. The man, believed to be aged 30, was imprisoned at the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi after being sentenced for smuggling drugs, and transferred to a health facility within the prison, which lacked the resources to provide him with treatment. "We are giving him antibiotics, but the proper treatment cannot be given to him here," the newspaper quoted a doctor as saying. Doctors also raised concerns that the disease could have been passed onto other inmates. "There is concern over the other prisoners. But we cannot screen them just yet," Bokhari said. The man was first diagnosed as HIV-positive a few months back when he was taken to hospital after complaining of weakness. According to Dawn, the patient was taken back to jail without being given any follow-up treatment, and had started to develop bedsores. "Doctors said there was no one to change the patient's clothing and cleanse his wounds," the report said. Staff at the national AIDS programme say they are working to get the man transferred to a more comfortable place as soon as possible. There has been no official comment from the prison authorities.