HIV Counseling and Testing in Prisons

The WHO and UNAIDS have released new guidance on offering HIV counseling and testing in prisons. The technical paper and policy brief can be found at: http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/idu/tc_prisons/en/index.html

IDU in many countries face mandatory HIV counseling and testing (HCT) in prisons. They are not offered quality counseling and are not provided their test results. Advocacy around improved HCT is an important step in scaling up comprehensive harm reduction for IDU. These documents can be a helpful guides as individual country programs conduct advocacy with law enforcement and seek to improve services offered within prisons. Shifting perception of drug use from a public security concern to a public health concern takes time and advocating for comprehensive harm reduction in prisons is a major step in the right direction.