Overview

The technical paper and policy brief were commissioned in July 2007 to inform discussions about how to scale up access to HIV testing and counselling for prisoners, following the release of the WHO/UNAIDS Guidance on provider-initiated HIV testing and counselling in health facilities. The Guidance (and the 2004 UNAIDS/WHO Policy statement on HIV testing) only briefly address issues related to HIV testing and counselling for prisoners. As a result, concerns have been raised that prisoners may be left out of efforts to scale up access to HIV testing and counselling and, more broadly, efforts to achieve universal access to comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support.

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Executive summary
• Introduction
• 1. General background
  • The response to HIV
  • The response to HIV among prisoners
• 2. Background on HIV testing and counselling
  • Introduction
  • What does the WHO/UNAIDS Guidance on provider-initiated testing and counselling say?
• 3. HIV testing and counselling for prisoners
  • What do international recommendations say?
  • What do we know about policy and practice of HIV testing and counselling in prisons?
  • What do we know about the effectiveness of various testing strategies?
• 4. Discussion and recommendations
  • Ensuring prisoners’ access to evidence-based HIV prevention, treatment, care and support
  • Protecting prisoners against HIV-related discrimination and abuse
  • Prohibiting “mandatory” and compulsory HIV testing
  • Ensuring that prisoners are included in efforts to expand access to HIV testing and counselling
  • Ensuring that prisoners can give informed consent
  • Integrating prison HIV programmes into national strategic HIV/AIDS plans
  • Ensuring continuity of care and treatment
  • Ensuring adequate monitoring, evaluation and research
  • Addressing issues specific to short-term imprisonment
  • Deciding on how best to scale up—programmatic considerations
• Annex Development process
• References

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

This publication has not been formally edited.