DADU, June 7: A large number of under-trial prisoners at the overcrowded district jail here is suffering from different disease, including contract disease, posing a threat to the health of other inmates as well as the officials and employees.

A survey, conducted by this scribe recently, revealed that quite a big number of prisoners is infected with TB and Hepatitis-B while a lot of others were under treatment for gastroenteritis and disease related to malnutrition and unhygienic conditions.

Cases of such disease were growing rapidly owing to the non-availability of adequate medical facilities, lack of appropriate medicines and delay in providing treatment to the patients.

The district jail, which was built in 1935, has a capacity of 70 prisoners. At present there are 260 prisoners lodged in different cells of the prison. Likewise, facilities of drinking water, meals and other essentials also fall too short for the huge number of the extra inmates.

There were a few cases of unreported deaths of prisoners during the last many years. The latest one was, however, reported only last week when Nangar Khan Khoso, a resident of Amri, died of Hepatitis-B.

An inquiry, to look into the actual cause of his death, is being conducted by a judicial magistrate who visited the jail and recorded statements of some prisoners and the prison staff.

Gulzar Ahmed Channa, the Superintendent of District Jail Dadu, told Dawn that the prison was overcrowded but the nature of disease affecting most of them was of minor nature. He said that doctors were available to examine the patients regularly and prescribe medicines. Similarly, he added, medicines were being provided as per the budget.

Expressing his views, the Medical Officer of the jail, Dr Taufiq Ahmed Memon, said that half of the inmates suffered from different disease. He disclosed that no budget was available for their treatment and any medicine, being provided to the jail, used to come from donors.

The main cause of routine disease, he said, appeared to be contaminated water which, too, was not being supplied in a sufficient quantity. The

Dr Memon indicated that the jail lacked the hospital facility which was essential to handle emergencies and some specific cases promptly.

He said that the jail authorities had written to the IG (Prisons) seeking a sufficient quantity of medicines and facility to shift deserving patients to any well-equipped hospital.

Mr Channa, when asked about the remedy of overcrowdedness, said that all the inmates were to be moved to a new building constructed at a cost of Rs35 million to accommodate 250 prisoners.