HYDERABAD, June 30: A foreign national prisoner was diagnosed as HIV positive in the central jail, a source at the civil hospital told this correspondent on Sunday.

The source, however, said the case would be declared as HIV positive after an investigation of blood through ELISA (enzymes, linked, immune, sorbent, assay) technique as per directives of the World Health Organization.

The prisoner, who belongs to Zimbabwe, was diagnosed as HIV positive through cheramatography technique.

A team of doctors began blood sample investigation on Thursday and took blood samples of 102 prisoners. On Saturday, the team obtained blood specimen of 145 prisoners.

The screening is being conducted as per directives of the Sindh IG, prisons, Brig Nisar Mahar, following diagnosis of at least one dozen HIV positive prisoners in the Larkana jail.

The IG said such tests would be conducted in all the prisons of the province.

The doctors’ team would conduct investigation of 2,700 prisoners of the central jail and 1,200 of the Nara prison.