From cell to cell: Eliminating HIV in prisons

EU Confidential

POLITICO

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.4 • 175 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

In the first episode of our EU Confidential: In Focus mini-series on HIV in Europe, we take you inside a French prison successfully tackling the spread of the disease. POLITICO's Sarah-Taïssir Bencharif and Cristina Gonzalez head to Montpellier to meet the medical team at Maison d’arrêt de Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone. Doctor Fadi Meroueh, the head of the prison’s clinic, explains the innovative protocols and medicines they've put in place to limit the spread of HIV among prisoners, as well as the challenges of practicing medicine in prison and the various ways HIV can spread from cell to cell. If Europe wants to eradicate HIV transmission, it must take a closer look at its prisons. The figures speak for themselves: In the WHO’s European Region, the HIV rate stands at around 0.43 percent for the general population but at least 2.6 percent among prisoners, according to the latest available data. But eliminating the disease in this complex setting is anything but easy. POLITICO takes you inside this prison to better understand the stakes, the challenges — and the successes — in stopping HIV transmission, one immune cell and jail cell at a time. This is the first of several bonus episodes of EU Confidential coming to you over the next month. Your regular EU Confidential episodes will still appear in your feed every Thursday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Suzanne Lynch, and you're listening to a special bonus episode of EU Confidential, brought
0:05.5	to you by our health team. I'll be back with our regular episode on Thursday. See you then.
0:12.5	Today's episode is presented by Gilead. Gilead's track record of innovations has helped transform
0:18.9	HIV into a preventable chronic condition, and we are not
0:22.5	stopping there. Together, we can end the epidemic for everyone, everywhere.
0:36.1	It's early May, and we're in the southern French city of Montpellier.
0:40.3	We're outside, we're it's sunny, it's warm, and the sky is this cloudless shade of blue,
0:46.3	the kind that makes you want to lounge on the beach for hours.
0:50.3	But we're not here for the good weather.
0:52.3	We're here to go to prison.
0:59.0	I'd never been to a prison before, so I really wasn't sure what to expect.
1:04.0	Basically, all I knew about prison came from TV, you know, from shows like prison break and Orange is the New Black.
1:12.5	You know, not exactly factual.
1:15.6	But this? This is the real deal.
1:24.1	We're walking down the hallway of a place called La Maison d'Arre de Ville Neuve Le Magallon.
1:33.3	It's a prison meant to house 600 men, though right now it's got around 900, including 10 to 30 minors. It's what's called a remand prison, where people are held in custody while waiting for their trial or sentencing,
1:40.3	and where they serve sentences of less than two years.
1:43.3	We're trying to keep up with Dr. Fatie Merouet, the head of the prison's clinic.
1:48.5	The real life of the prison.
1:51.7	Rows and rows of men dressed in orange are standing along the concrete hallway.
1:56.8	And they all know Dr. Merwe.
1:59.2	They're calling out for him, and he's almost like a rock star here.
	...

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