Disinfecting TabletsThe Department of Health and the Prison Service appeared to be at odds last night over a needle cleansing programme designed to protect prisoners from blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis.
From April 1, inmates, [prisoners], will be given disinfecting tablets similar to those used for sterilising babies' bottles. But health department officials said last night that cleansing tablets were not the best way to protect against the transmission of diseases.
"I don't think we would encourage this [needle-cleaning] as being as effective as the issuing of sterile needles," said a spokesman. "We don't recommend it. We regard the needle-exchange programmes in place throughout the whole of the [health] system as the most effective way of reducing blood-borne diseases."
A disinfecting scheme was first tried in 1995, but was later withdrawn for safety reasons.
Doctors and drug-user support groups have also challenged the move, claiming that a needle exchange scheme would be safer and more effective.
Critics claim ministers fear that the introduction of a needle exchange scheme would be a tacit admission of the scale of the drugs problem in prisons.
"There is no foolproof way of cleaning injection equipment - it is easy to get the cleaning process wrong," said Michael Linnell of Lifeline, a drugs support agency. "You could be encouraging people to share because they think the equipment has been cleaned. That increases the risk of spreading blood-borne viruses."
The Guardian has obtained a copy of Prison Service instructions on the scheme issued to governors, including those in private jails.
It says the new policy aims to combat "the spread of HIV and other blood-borne viruses such as hepatitis, [which] are readily spread when drug users share contaminated injecting equipment".
It points out that that "similar arrangements [for cleaning needles] have worked well in Scottish prisons since 1993".
The Prison Service says the scheme was approved by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which was asked to design a strategy for the reintroduction of disinfecting tablets at all penal establishments.
The school believes that a tablets pilot scheme tested at 11 prisons between 1998 and 1999 was successful, and that the scheme should operate in all prisons. The home secretary, David Blunkett, has accepted its advice.
Last night a spokesman for the Department of Health said it was not opposed to the cleansing scheme in prisons. "Whilst it is acknowledged in the community at large that needle exchange programmes are an effective method, there are drawbacks to similar schemes in institutional environments," it said.
But a consultant in tropical and blood-borne diseases in the north-west of England said needle cleaning was less efficient than needle exchange.
"A needle exchange programme has been in place in Manchester for far longer than in some other cities," he said. "That is almost certainly the reason why Manchester has a lower prevalence of the spread of blood-borne diseases than areas which started similar schemes much later."
A GP who practises in an area with a high rate of heroin use added:
"Disinfectant tablets may prevent the spread of some skin diseases, but are unlikely to combat blood-borne viruses effectively."
By Eric Allison, prisons correspondent posted 4 March 04
Related:
England tops the EU in imprisonment
England and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures. The imprisonment rate of 141 per 100,000 makes the countries the prison capital of Europe for the second year running.
Don't put mothers behind bars
If we are to arrest the soaring prison suicide rate among women, we need to look at alternative punishment.
UK Prison Abuse: Guards Holding Nooses
'We will kill you. We will get away with it... we've done it before' Prisoners tell of hanging threats by officers holding nooses.
K K K in the UK
In the documentary it is alleged an officer dressed in a Ku Klux Klan mask at a training centre in north-west England. An undercover reporter from the BBC also claimed to have taped racist comments by some officers.
Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.
My Sarah was smart and talented - Why did she die in jail?
LONDON: Sarah Campbell was just 18 when she killed herself [? committed suicide,] one of seven women to die in jail this year. Our correspondent asks why so many women kill themselves in prison [? commit suicide in prison.]
