PRISON DISEASE THREAT

JAILS are hotbeds of deadly transmittable diseases that make their way into
the broader community, a prison doctor warned yesterday.

Australia's peak medical body has called on governments to urgently address
what it described as appalling health in prisons.

Hepatitis B and C and HIV were thriving in the nation's jails, and drug use
and addiction were at high levels.

An Australian Medical Association report has also revealed plans to push
for the abolition of body cavity searches except by medical practitioners
for medical reasons.

The group will call for banning of solitary confinement as punishment for
wayward prisoners.

Dr Wendell Rosevear, Brisbane prisons visiting medical officer and the
report's author, said prisons had become a spreading ground for infections,
because people were in constant flux with the prison and the community.

The AMA's latest studies showed:

BETWEEN a third and two-thirds of inmates were hepatitis C carriers.

A THIRD had attempted suicide.

UP TO 83 per cent of Inmates had alcohol or drug problems relating to their
incarceration.

A QUARTER of inmates used heroin, with as many as seven in 10 of those
sharing needles.

SEVEN in 10 smoked standard cigarettes and more than 40 per cent used
marijuana.

AMA federal vice-president Sandra Hacker said the problem was one of the
nation's most neglected issues.

The group's ethics committee will meet next week to work on strategies to
improve prison health.

"The sickening health standards do nothing for a prisoner's ability to cope
with everyday life on release and put other people in society at risk as
well," Dr Hacker said.