Prison AIDS rates high without condoms

Despite the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe's prisons, up to 70 percent of prisoners continue to engaged in same sex intercourse, the state-owned ZIANA news agency reported on Tuesday. Suggestions by local AIDS NGOs that condoms should be provided in prisons have been rebuffed by the government. A doctor at a government referral hospital, Blessing Mukumba, was quoted as saying: "Out of all the prisoners that we attend to on a daily basis, about 60 to 70 percent of them admit to have had sex with other males at one time or the other." Research shows that around 60 percent of all prisoners in Zimbabwe are currently living with HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS has suggested that thousands of prisoners in Southern Africa face the constant threat of HIV-infection because conservative authorities are unwilling to provide them with condoms for fear of promoting homosexuality.