Corrective Services Minister Fran Logan has dismissed concerns from leading HIV experts about how long it takes for someone to get tested for the virus.
While experts say a HIV test can detect antibodies within six days of infection, the Minister’s spokesperson says advice given to the Minister is different – and three months is required.
On Tuesday the Western Australian government pushed it’s Prison Amendments Bill 2020 through the WA Legislative Council, adding COVID-19 to the list of diseases the bill covers.
The bill allows prison officials to order a mandatory blood test of prisoners if an officer believes they may have come into contact with a prisoners bodily fluids.
Similar legislation was brought in for police officers in 2015, and despite claims that the procedure would be rarely used, research has shown the police force have order blood tests over 350 times in three and half years.
Health experts have raised concern over the bill and accused Corrective Service Minister Fran Logan of spreading falsehoods about HIV and ignoring the most up-to-date science.
Today a spokesperson for the minister responded to the criticism saying the health experts the Minister had consulted when drafting the bill provided distinctly different advice.
“The amendments to the Prisons Act 1981 are to support a prison officer if they have been exposed to a bodily fluid that may carry an infectious disease such as HIV, and Hepatitis B or C.
“It is an unnecessary burden for a prison officer to have to wait three months to be themselves tested to learn if they have a life-changing infectious disease. It puts significant stress on the individual and their families.
“The amendments to the Act were done in consultation with medical experts.” the spokesperson said.
While the WA AIDS Council (WAAC), National Association of People With HIV (NAPWHA) and Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) have declared HIV tests can detect infection within six days, and rapid tests take just 15-minutes, the minister’s spokesperson says the advice they received is a three month waiting period is required.
“The advice received is that the three-month period is the combined period of incubation plus the time before the infected person has antibodies, which is the measurable immune response to that infection.
“The changes to the Act to make it mandatory for a prisoner to be tested specify that it can only be ordered if the chief executive officer has suspicion on reasonable grounds that there has been a transfer of bodily fluid from a prisoner to prison officer.” the spokesperson said.
“This may occur in circumstances where an officer has been assaulted, responding to blood spillages or as a consequence of being accidentally jabbed by a needle, syringe or weapons during operational searches.
“A prisoner’s infectious status can also be disclosed to the affected prisoner officer, but they cannot share that information or they will face a penalty.
“All prison officers are vaccinated against Hepatitis B and trained in accordance with the Equal Opportunity Act 1984.”
Despite the last known case of a worker becoming infected with HIV in the workplace being in 2002, the government has insisted the legislation and associated penalties are essential and urgent.
On Friday COVID-19 was added to the list of diseases covered by the legislation. The inclusion of COVID-19 meant the government could limit the time given to debate the bill in the Legislative Assembly.
During the debate yesterday Greens and Liberal MPs questioned why the bill was no being considered urgent when it had sat on the sidelines for months, and zero cases of COVID-19 had been detected within Western Australia’s prison population.
The bill is expected to be read for the third time later today, after which it will have to return to the Legislative Assembly due to changes to the proposed legislation.
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