The health of the prisoners in Guinean prisons is nose-diving to zero

March 2nd, 2009

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In Brief: Unacceptable conditions in Guinean prisons


Photo: Julie Rémy/MSF
DAKAR,  - Prisons in Guinea are failing to provide basic food, water, health care and hygiene to inmates, according to “Unacceptable conditions in Guinean prisons,” a report by medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) that surveyed four facilities.

In Guéckédou prison in southeastern Guinea one in three adult male prisoners suffered from malnutrition and one in five from severe acute malnutrition, according to MSF’s research.

MSF staff said “appalling” sanitation conditions in Guéckédou had led to dehydration in 42 percent of prisoners and widespread skin and respiratory infections, including tuberculosis, which had gone untreated.

In many cases only buckets placed in cells were available for defecation and were only infrequently emptied, according to the report. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve washed myself two times – in nine months,” one prisoner told MSF.

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source.www.irinnews.org

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