Jakarta – The majority of deaths in the country's prisons are caused by HIV/AIDS, authorities said Tuesday.

"As much as 72.5 percent deaths of inmates (last year) were caused by opportunistic infections including high fever, tuberculosis, pneumonia, hepatitis, diarrhea, and thrush related to HIV/AIDS symptoms," said Mardjaman, the director general of correctional institutions at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry.

In Jakarta alone last year, 351 of 19,000 prisoners died.

Of the 116,000 people serving jail terms in the more than 300 penitentiaries and prisons nationwide, 32,000 were imprisoned for drug cases. Seventy percent of those convicted in drug cases were drug users.

Speaking at a media conference at the ministry, Mardjaman said that his directorate general planned to start the identification of new HIV/AIDS positive inmates by next year.

He also said that, "The transaction (of drugs inside prisons) is a fact." "We have been applying routine and incidental sweeping in every prison and penitentiary," he said.

"However, we are not able to detect drug transactions (inside the prison). For that reason, we have been working with the National Police since mid 2006," he said. He added that drugs were brought into prisons by various means, involving prison guards as well as visitors.

Also present at the conference were the director of Dharmais Hospital, Syamsuridzal Djauzi, and AIDS activist Baby Jim Aditya.

"The rampant use of injected drugs in Jakarta started in 1996. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV takes a period of eight to 10 years to reveal its clinical symptoms, known as AIDS," said Syamsuridzal, who is also an AIDS activist.

"The death rate of inmates due to AIDS can be reduced by identifying those who are suffering from the symptoms before serving his or her jail term."

Meanwhile, Baby said that her organization had requested mobile roentgen machines for tuberculosis treatment, as well as are larger budget for supplying HIV/AIDS drugs and supporting follow-up action after AIDS-related tests and consultations.

The Salemba Penitentiary currently only allocates Rp 25 million (US$2,700) in its monthly budget for the treatment of ill inmates as in-patients at a local hospital.

Mardjaman said that by the end of this year his office would start a correctional institution for drug-related inmates with the Gracia Hospital in Yogyakarta.

"We have also completed the establishment of a hospital with a capacity of 200 beds inside Cipinang Prison," he said.

The hospital is yet to start operation, however, because its management is still being discussed with the Health Ministry.