Azerbaijan, Baku, 12 March / Trend corr K. Zarbaliyeva/ Tuberculosis cases ending in death in the prisons of Azerbaijan have decreased ten times in the last five years, Nazim Alakbarov, the Deputy Justice Minister and head of the Penitentiary Service Nazim Alakbarov said when speaking of the US State Department's report on human rights in the world for 2007.
The report says that in spite of Azerbaijan's improving infrastructure, conditions in prisons still remain dangerous to the health of inmates. The number of inmates in a cell exceeds the norm and medical aid is at a low level. The report named tuberculosis the main cause of death prisons.
According to Alakbarov, some 1,000 tuberculosis-infected prisoners are being treated in special establishments.
Stressing that tuberculosis is a social disease, Alakbarov said that before being taken to the investigation cell all people under arrest have a check-up in order to reveal whether they are contaminated with the virus.
As to the excessive number of inmates in prisons, Alakbarov said that that is peculiar only to investigation cells. The construction and operating of a new investigation cell by the end of this year will put an end to the problem.
Construction of a new investigation cell has commenced in the Zabrat settlement near Baku. The experience of European countries in this field was used during the development of design documents.
There are three investigation cells in Azerbaijan, two of them located in Baku and one in Ganja. More investigation cells will also be constructed in regional punishment serving places.