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Report Reveals Continuing Danger of Extremely Poor Medical Care for HIV and AIDS Prisoners

HARVEST, AL -- On Thursday, Dr. Stephen Tabet, MD, MPH, an infectious disease specialist, released a 60-page report addressing substandard medical care provided to HIV and AIDS infected prisoners confined at Limestone Correctional Facility. The report was filed as a supplement to a report Dr. Tabet prepared in the federal lawsuit, Leatherwood. v. Campbell, in August, 2003. The case which challenges the inadequate medical treatment and living conditions for HIV infected prisoners has been scheduled for trial before Federal District Court Judge Karon Bowdre on May 17, 2004.

The March 11 report details the deaths of five prisoners in the HIV unit since October, 2003. Tabet writes, “One of the most egregious medical failures at Limestone is the number of preventable deaths… Patients continue to die because of the failure of the medical system.”

One patient literally suffocated in front of the medical staff without treatment. Another patient’s weight dropped from 171 pounds to 110 pounds over a five month period without medication or a proper diet. A third patient with active tuberculosis was placed in the dormitory with over 200 other prisoners with HIV, exposing the entire immune-compromised population to this potentially fatal disease before his death.

Dr. Tabet found serious deficiencies and delays in the current medical treatment through his examination of patients at review of medical records at the prison. One patient discussed in the report suffered irreversible kidney failure because of an eight month delay in treatment.

Dr. Tabet observed during his inspection that many of the recommendations he made in his 2003 report had not been followed, “Unfortunately, despite describing this problem [preventable deaths] in the previous report, there remains no thorough, organized system of reviewing patient deaths.”

Since his previous report, the Alabama Department of Corrections replaced the previous company providing medical care in the Alabama prisons with Prison Health Services in November, 2003. Gretchen Rohr, an attorney representing the plaintiff class in this case states, “Prison Health Services has developed constructive policies and procedures on paper, but we have not yet seen them implemented at the prison. Until sweeping changes are made, the care for HIV infected prisoners will remain unconstitutional and unacceptable.”

Tabet states in his report, “While some of the changes that have been described are somewhat positive, the improvements have been far outweighed by the problems that continue to plague Limestone Correctional Facility. Additionally, new problems have arisen at Limestone.”

After the patient with tuberculosis died at the prison, the Alabama Department of Corrections failed to test and treat prisoners who had been exposed to this patient. Two months later, the Alabama Department of Public Health mandated that all of the inmates in the HIV unit at Limestone be treated with tuberculosis medication because of the exposure to this highly contagious disease. This medication is being distributed between 1:00 and 3:00 in the morning and, if not monitored, can lead to fatal liver failure in people with AIDS or Hepatitis.

Tabet continues, “In the prior report’s summary, a concern about the possibility of an outbreak of tuberculosis was raised. True to the warnings and concerns, because there is no infectious disease prevention protocol in practice, a patient with active tuberculosis was housed with the HIV population.”