Lithuanian Officials Investigating HIV Outbreak in Prisons
Lithuania's interior ministry has organized a special commission to investigate a potential HIV outbreak among the nation's inmates, Agence France-Presse reports. The Lithuanian AIDS Center announced on Wednesday that 87 of 346 prisoners in Alytus prison tested positive for the virus. "The results reveal a very negative tendency in Lithuanian prisons and unbelievable facts about the scale of use of intravenous drugs," the center said in a statement. Officials are testing an additional 600 prisoners to assess the scope of the problem, and results are expected "within days." Lithuania has one of the lowest HIV infection rates in Europe and registered only 72 new HIV cases last year, bringing the nation's total to 361 (Agence France-Presse, 5/23).
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