Letter to Editor
Morbidity Pattern Among Prisoners of Central Jail, Hindalga, Belgaum, Karnataka
Author(s): Asha A Bellad, Vijaya A Naik, MD Mallapur
Vol. 32, No. 4 (2007-10 - 2007-12)
ISSN No. 0970-0218
Sir,
Prison population consists of an over representation of
members of the most marginalized groups in society,
people with poor health and chronic untreated conditions.
This population is an underserved section of the society.
Often their health problems are neglected. There are
problems of tuberculosis, skin infection, HIV/AIDS
and anxiety etc. A study carried out among inmates
of Yerwada Jail revealed that skin disorders were the
commonest ailments followed by dental, ENT disorders,
respiratory tract infection and eye conditions.1 Another
study done among inmates of the Bangalore Central
Prison revealed that 1.98% had HIV infection.2
Reforming the delivery of prison health care is one of
the most important aspects of improving human rights
compliance. Therefore knowing the types of morbidities
among them will help us in taking actions which will
reduce the disease burden in this group and will also
help in re-integration of prisoners into mainstream society
following their discharge from prison.3 The objective of
this article is to study the different types of morbidities,
their incidence and prevalence among prisoners.
The Hindalga Jail spreads over an area of 99 acres. It
has a capacity to accommodate 1,162 prisoners. During
the study period there were 850 prisoners lodge in the
jail. The jail has two buildings known as circles. The first
circle has 7 barracks wherein the convicted life term and
other short term prisoners are made to work and stay. The
second circle has 4 blocks where under trial prisoners
are lodged. The short term prisoners stay in the jail from
few months to few years.
In the present study any disease lasting for the period
of 0-4 weeks was considered as acute morbidity. Any
disease exceeding this period was considered as chronic
morbidity (However, the definition of acute and chronic
morbidity vary according to the type of disease and the
system affected).
A large number of the prisoners were male (92%)
and 56.87% of the prisoners were in the age group
of 30-49 years. Almost 61.00% of the prisoners were
literates. However only 37.50% of females were
literates. Majority of the prisoners belonged to Social
Class-IV (43.10%), with only 10.20% of prisoners
belonging to Class-II according to modified Prasad’s
classification.4
Almost 2/3rd of the study populations were unskilled
workers, working as farmers, labourers and coolie.
Amongst females, 50% of them were house wives. Almost
90% of the prisoners had committed murder, remaining
crime being theft, attempt to murder, rape and cheating.
Follow-up of these prisoners for a period of 1 year
revealed that anaemia (54.82%) was the commonest
morbidity among chronic morbidity followed by AURTI
(21.75%) and diarrhoea (13%) for acute morbidity.
Pulmonary TB and HIV contributed 2% and 1.5%
respectively. Other Morbidity were Diabetes (3.6%),
senile cataract (7%), Pyoderma (12%) etc.
The incidence of AURTI / Prisoner/Yr was 1.53, diarrhoea
was 0.93, ALRTI was 0.63 and gastritis was 0.35.
Episodes of both AURTI and ALRTI were common in the
rainy season. (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001 respectively).
The physical conditions and infrastructure in the prison
were poor. The prisoners did not have access to safe water
leading to diarrhoea (13%). More than half of the prisoners
were anaemic which was due to lack of nutritious diet.1
Acknowledgment
We are thankful to the prison authorities of the Hindalga jail
for their kind co-operation throughout the study and also to the
prisoners for their active participation in the study
References
- Gupta RK, Singh GPI, Gupta RR. Health status of inmates
of a prison. Indian J Commun Med 2001;26:86-9.
- Sundar M, Ravikumar KK, Sudarshan MK. A cross sectional
seroprevalence survey for HIV 1 and high risk sexual
behavior of seropositives in a prison in India. Public Health
1995;39:116-8.
- Kuruvila M, Ismail SM, Pramod K. Pattern of dermatoses
among inmates of district prison-mangalore. Indian J
Dermatol 2002;68:16-8.
- Park K. Textbook of preventive and social medicine. 17th ed.
M/s. Banarasidas Bhanot Publishers: Jabalpur; 2002.
Asha A Bellad, Vijaya A Naik, MD Mallapur
Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru
Medical College, Nehru Nagar, Belgaum, Karnataka, India.
E-mail: drashabellad(at)yahoo.com
Received: 31.03.06
Accepted: 19.01.07
ISSN No. 0970-0218
Sir,
Prison population consists of an over representation of
members of the most marginalized groups in society,
people with poor health and chronic untreated conditions.
This population is an underserved section of the society.
Often their health problems are neglected. There are
problems of tuberculosis, skin infection, HIV/AIDS
and anxiety etc. A study carried out among inmates
of Yerwada Jail revealed that skin disorders were the
commonest ailments followed by dental, ENT disorders,
respiratory tract infection and eye conditions.1 Another
study done among inmates of the Bangalore Central
Prison revealed that 1.98% had HIV infection.2
Reforming the delivery of prison health care is one of the most important aspects of improving human rights compliance. Therefore knowing the types of morbidities among them will help us in taking actions which will reduce the disease burden in this group and will also help in re-integration of prisoners into mainstream society following their discharge from prison.3 The objective of this article is to study the different types of morbidities, their incidence and prevalence among prisoners.
The Hindalga Jail spreads over an area of 99 acres. It has a capacity to accommodate 1,162 prisoners. During the study period there were 850 prisoners lodge in the jail. The jail has two buildings known as circles. The first circle has 7 barracks wherein the convicted life term and other short term prisoners are made to work and stay. The second circle has 4 blocks where under trial prisoners are lodged. The short term prisoners stay in the jail from few months to few years.
In the present study any disease lasting for the period of 0-4 weeks was considered as acute morbidity. Any disease exceeding this period was considered as chronic morbidity (However, the definition of acute and chronic morbidity vary according to the type of disease and the system affected).
A large number of the prisoners were male (92%) and 56.87% of the prisoners were in the age group of 30-49 years. Almost 61.00% of the prisoners were literates. However only 37.50% of females were literates. Majority of the prisoners belonged to Social Class-IV (43.10%), with only 10.20% of prisoners belonging to Class-II according to modified Prasad’s classification.4
Almost 2/3rd of the study populations were unskilled workers, working as farmers, labourers and coolie. Amongst females, 50% of them were house wives. Almost 90% of the prisoners had committed murder, remaining crime being theft, attempt to murder, rape and cheating. Follow-up of these prisoners for a period of 1 year revealed that anaemia (54.82%) was the commonest morbidity among chronic morbidity followed by AURTI (21.75%) and diarrhoea (13%) for acute morbidity. Pulmonary TB and HIV contributed 2% and 1.5% respectively. Other Morbidity were Diabetes (3.6%), senile cataract (7%), Pyoderma (12%) etc.
The incidence of AURTI / Prisoner/Yr was 1.53, diarrhoea was 0.93, ALRTI was 0.63 and gastritis was 0.35. Episodes of both AURTI and ALRTI were common in the rainy season. (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001 respectively). The physical conditions and infrastructure in the prison were poor. The prisoners did not have access to safe water leading to diarrhoea (13%). More than half of the prisoners were anaemic which was due to lack of nutritious diet.1
Acknowledgment
We are thankful to the prison authorities of the Hindalga jail for their kind co-operation throughout the study and also to the prisoners for their active participation in the study
References
- Gupta RK, Singh GPI, Gupta RR. Health status of inmates of a prison. Indian J Commun Med 2001;26:86-9.
- Sundar M, Ravikumar KK, Sudarshan MK. A cross sectional seroprevalence survey for HIV 1 and high risk sexual behavior of seropositives in a prison in India. Public Health 1995;39:116-8.
- Kuruvila M, Ismail SM, Pramod K. Pattern of dermatoses among inmates of district prison-mangalore. Indian J Dermatol 2002;68:16-8.
- Park K. Textbook of preventive and social medicine. 17th ed. M/s. Banarasidas Bhanot Publishers: Jabalpur; 2002.
Asha A Bellad, Vijaya A Naik, MD Mallapur
Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru
Medical College, Nehru Nagar, Belgaum, Karnataka, India.
E-mail: drashabellad(at)yahoo.com
Received: 31.03.06
Accepted: 19.01.07