UNC researches granted nearly $50 million to study HIV in N.C. prisons

A team of UNC researchers is looking to dispel the myth that HIV often begins in prison — and make sure the virus doesn’t spread behind bars.

David Wohl, a professor at UNC School of Medicine, is co-leading a five-year study of HIV in the state’s prison system. He and his associates received nearly $50 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health to study ways of preventing and treating HIV in N.C. prisons.

Wohl said a common misconception is that HIV spreads through sexual intercourse between men in prison. The truth, he said, is that many inmates with HIV already have the virus before they go to jail.

Only one in 300 people in the general U.S. population has HIV, Wohl said, but one in 50 people who go to prison has it.

“I think HIV spreading in prison is so blown out of proportion,” Wohl said.

But N.C. Department of Corrections spokesman Keith Acree said sexually-transmitted HIV is still a problem in the state’s prisons.

“It’s an issue for us like it’s an issue for any prison system across the country,” he said. “Sex in prison happens. You’d be sticking your head in the sand to say it doesn’t happen.”

Robert Childs, director of the N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition, said prisons need to take preventative measures such as providing inmates with condoms.

“Not giving people adequate protection is a problem,” he said. “It’s really difficult to get a condom in jail.”

He added that state prisons can also tackle the HIV problem by giving out clean syringes.

“There’s usually only one piece of paraphernalia for a hundred inmates, so they all share it,” he said.

“HIV can live in a syringe for a long time.”

Many of the drugs inmates inject through syringes, including the painkiller oxycodone, are illegal or require prescriptions, but Childs said those drugs are going to be in prisons no matter what jail wardens do.

A major problem, Wohl said, is that 25 percent of people who have HIV don’t realize that they’re infected and infect others without realizing it.

N.C. prison statistics mirror the national average: Acree said the state’s average prison population is about 40,000 inmates. In September there were 767 cases of HIV or AIDS, about 2 percent of the prison population.

“Most inmates have this when they come to prison,” he said. “We just have to treat them while they’re here.”

UNC Hospitals has a contract with the Department of Corrections to treat HIV in the state’s prisons, Wohl said.

He said he and his team plan to keep track of inmates with HIV after they leave prison, educate them about the risks of passing on their disease and give them medication and consumer warnings regarding condom use.

“It’s not working,” he said. “What we need is better methods.

“Let’s find HIV-positive people and try behavioral and medical interventions to get them from spreading it.”

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.