From cell to cell: Eliminating HIV in prisons

In the primary episode of our EU Confidential: In Focus mini-series on HIV in Europe, we take you inside a French jail efficiently tackling the unfold of the illness.

POLITICO’s Sarah-Taïssir Bencharif and Cristina Gonzalez head to Montpellier to meet the medical staff at Maison d’arrêt de Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone. Doctor Fadi Meroueh, the pinnacle of the jail’s clinic, explains the revolutionary protocols and medicines they’ve put in place to restrict the unfold of HIV amongst prisoners, in addition to the challenges of training drugs in jail and the varied methods HIV can unfold from cell to cell.

If Europe needs to eradicate HIV transmission, it should take a more in-depth take a look at its prisons. The figures communicate for themselves: In the WHO’s European Region, the HIV charge stands at round 0.43 p.c for the final inhabitants however at the least 2.6 p.c amongst prisoners, in accordance to the most recent obtainable information. But eliminating the illness in this advanced setting is something however straightforward. POLITICO takes you inside this jail to higher perceive the stakes, the challenges — and the successes — in stopping HIV transmission, one immune cell and jail cell at a time.

This is the primary of a number of bonus episodes of EU Confidential coming to you over the subsequent month. Your common EU Confidential episodes will nonetheless seem in your feed each Thursday.