Authorities at a Shanghai prison on Monday established the municipality's first separate ward for prisoners suffering from HIV/AIDS in the wake of the growth in the number of HIV-positive inmates in the past decade.
The ward at the prison in Shanghai's Qingpu district can hold 220 prisoners, news site thepaper.cn reported. HIV-positive inmates and those suffering from AIDS can continue to receive treatment in the ward, said the report.
Warden Wang Weidong noted that guards will also monitor the ward with 24-hour camera surveillance to prevent disease transmission between prisoners.
The number of HIV-positive prisoners in the prison each year increased tenfold from just over 10 in 2005 to 117 in 2016. All of them were previously housed among the prison's general population.
The first HIV-positive prisoner in China, a 25-year-old man surnamed Liu, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in Central China's Hubei Province in 2003, news site cjn.cn reported in 2008.
After being held in isolation at a clinic in Wuhan for one year, Liu was transferred to Shayang's Guanghua Prison, which established a separate cell for HIV-positive prisoners in June 2005.
