STATES LEFT EXPOSED TO HIV CLAIMS

State governments could be exposed to big legal claims from prisoners who
contracted deadly viruses such as HIV and hepatitis C, the nation's chief
Aids adviser has warned.

Mr Chris Puplick, the chairman of the National Council on Aids and Related
Diseases, said hepatitis C was ``absolutely endemic in Australian
prisons'', and called for trials of syringe exchange programs in jails and
youth custody centres to help prevent its transmission.

He applauded the availability of condoms and bleach in some of the nation's
jails, which he said could help prevent the spread of blood-borne viruses,
but questioned whether the containment of HIV in jails had been ``more the
product of good luck rather than good management''.

Mr Puplick said prisoners were entitled to the same standard of health care
as the general community.

``I have no doubt that an integral part of the progress that will be made
in this area will be as a result of threatened law suits by prisoners over
governments' undoubted duty of care,'' he said.

``We provide clean needles to people who are not in prison for public
health reasons. It seems to me that one of the fundamental issues is that
people who are in prisons, and as a result are in the complete care and
custody of the state, are entitled to a level of health care which is no
less than that which the state provides or endorses for people outside
prison.''

Hepatitis C is easily transmitted among injecting drug users who share
equipment. It is a long-term disease that can lead to serious illnesses
such as cancer of the liver or cirrhosis.

It has been estimated that about one in every 100 Australians is carrying
the virus, but the incidence is much higher for drug users and in prisons.

Drug rehabilitation experts have said that considering that no jails can be
kept drug free, and that syringes are somehow smuggled inside and then
shared by prisoners, governments need to urgently consider testing further
harm reduction strategies.

In an open letter to participants of a conference about health in prisons
that begins in Sydney today, Mr Puplick criticised the failure of
Australian politicians to tackle controversial corrections issues.

Acknowledging there were health and safety issues regarding the
distribution of syringes in jails - they can be used as weapons and officer
unions have threatened to walk off the job whenever the issue has been
raised - Mr Puplick said some Swiss and German jails had resolved those
problems, and were operating successful exchange programs.

The Aids council has tried - without success - to have the matter raised at
the regular meetings of all state and territory corrections and health
ministers.

``It's a matter that I think people don't want to put on the agenda at this
stage, and it's going to be one of the issues that over the course of the
next couple of years we're going to have to agitate about,'' Mr Puplick said.