Virus de inmunodeficiencia humana: un desafío en las cárceles en Colombia

Infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a pu-blic health problem that has affected millions of people around the world. In Colombia on 2017, the prevalence was 0.12 per 100 inhabitants. In prison, this infection has taken a great deal of force and has become a threat to people deprived of their liberty, according to the data provided by the International Association of Provi-ders of AIDS Care, who report an HIV rate among prisoners is 5 to 7 times higher than the general population. By 2015, in Colombia, there were 555 prisoners with HIV, which corres-ponded to 0.91% of the total number of people living with HIV. This is partly explained by factors such as living conditions (overcrowding, precarious nutrition, exposure to sexual abuse, as well as the use of psychoactive substances, among others) and the few implemented programs for the prevention of this disease in prisons.Once the prisoners acquires the virus, the prison does not gua-rantee an adequate control or monitoring of the disease, much less access to appropriate and timely antiretroviral treatment for the control of this infection, which leads to a rapid deterioration of health and the continuity of transmission of the virus among the population.It will be necessary to make changes in the structural and in-termediate determinants of the health of prisoners, and ensure that the regulations, policies, programs and strategies that are already developed are implemented without barriers and in a timely manner.