December 10, 2007

Poor Care for Detained Positive Immigrants

A new 71-page report by civil rights group Human Rights Watch says that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security provides inadequate care and treatment for HIV-positive people in immigrant detainee facilities, reports The Los Angeles Times (latimes.com, 12/8).

The Times notes that the report, released December 7, encourages the government to improve its care and screening of HIV-positive detainees to ensure that they receive appropriate treatment. “We found the medical care in three types of facilities, representing nine states, was delayed, interrupted or inconsistent,” said report author Megan McLemore.

The researchers interviewed current and former detainees and officials from Homeland Security and detention facilities across the country. According to the Times report, respondents said that the government failed to deliver antiretroviral drugs in a consistent manner, prescribe prophylactic medications to prevent opportunistic infections, and provide continuous care to detainees who were transferred between facilities.

McLemore said that one of the most egregious cases of inadequate care involved the death of an HIV-positive transgender inmate at a facility in San Pedro, California, in July.

According to Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quoted in the story, the agency hadn’t fully reviewed the report but was generally in disagreement with its findings.

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