Report Faults Alabama Prison System

HIV-positive prisoners in Alabama receive such erratic health care that they are at high risk of developing resistance to antiretroviral medications, according a report by a court-appointed prison monitor. Physician Joseph Bick, who examined medical care offered at Alabama's Limestone Correctional Facility, which houses more than 200 HIV-positive inmates, found that prison's caregivers mixed medications that were not supposed to be used together; did not suggest treatment changes for prisoners with rising HIV viral loads or changed only one drug at a time in their regimens, which boosts treatment failure risks; and made treatment changes without telling the patients. Prison officials say the recent hiring of an HIV specialist should alleviate the problems.