Compulsory blood tests conducted in east China's Shandong Province amongst inmates of prisons, detention centers and other correctional facilities have found 21 people to be HIV positive, provincial authorities said yesterday.

According to the provincial center for disease prevention and control (CDPC), they have been given separate cells with enhanced surveillance, reported to include closed-circuit cameras, and would soon receive appropriate medical treatment.

The CDPC said 72,801 blood samples had been collected but did not publish the name or location of the facilities where HIV positive inmates were incarcerated.

"It would be better if they could be moved into hospitals with specialized doctors and medical facilities," said CDPC official Wang Tongzhan, adding that that would need to be approved by the Ministry of Justice.

Testing prison populations was identified as a national priority by health authorities at the end of last year, and key to identifying the true extent of infections and formulating responses to it.

Besides Yunnan and Zhejiang, other provinces have rarely tested people in prisons, detention centers, labor camps or police detention for HIV in the past.

Wang Tianrui, head of the provincial health department, has asked the CDPC to work with the justice department to give HIV tests to people about to be detained or imprisoned.

According to health authorities, there are 691 people in Shandong and the neighboring province of Henan known to have HIV, 158 of whom come from elsewhere.

221 new cases were reported in the first six months of the year, compared to 154 in the whole of 2004, but the CDPC attributed this to increased testing.

(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2005)