Most HIV-Infected Prisoners Go Untreated After Release

TUESDAY, Feb. 24 (HealthDay News) — Following their release from Texas prisons, only 5 percent of ex-inmates with HIV fill a prescription for medicine to treat their condition within the necessary 10 days, a new study finds.

“Those who discontinue ART [antiretroviral therapy] at this time are at increased risk of developing a higher viral burden, resulting in greater infectiousness and higher levels of drug resistance, potentially creating reservoirs of drug-resistant HIV in the general community,” the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston researchers wrote in the Feb. 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.