HIV/AIDS awareness team set up for prisoners

The national anti-HIV/AIDS body in the Central African Republic (CAR) has set up a unit to conduct awareness campaigns among prisoners in police jails in the capital, Bangui, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Tuesday. "Prisoners often have sexual behaviour with high risks that favour quick propagation of HIV/AIDS," Dr. Marcel Massanga, an official of the Comite National de Lutte contre le Sida, said. The radio reported that Massanga made the remarks when he took part in the first HIV awareness campaign in the jail at the Bangui Central Police Station. Massanga said that the unit, which falls within the Ministry for Public Security, would inform prisoners about the risks to which they are exposed by practising homosexuality. Police Commissioner Bonaventure Raya, who is also the acting director of Bangui Central Police Station, told PlusNews on Wednesday that many of the detainees had been arrested for narcotics-related charges. Without denying the existence of homosexuality in jails, Raya said that no prisoner had complained of rape, so far. Police stations in the CAR serve as prisons, pending the completion of the rehabilitation of the Ngaragba Central Prison in Bangui. Most of the police jails are reported to be overcrowded, increasing the chances or promiscuity and high HIV infection rates.