Innovation through Crisis

Dr Janet Weston discusses the complexities of Ireland getting to grips with HIV and AIDS during the mid -1990s, and the services for injecting drug users in Mountjoy prison.

HIV/AIDS in Prisons, 1980-2000

Janet Weston

The emergence of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s presented particular challenges for prison medicine. Prison populations were quickly identified as having high rates of infection and of high-risk behaviours, and international organisations such as the World Health Organisation repeatedly called on governments to take action.