HIV patient inside detention centre without life-saving medication for 17 days

A HIV patient inside a UK detention centre has been left without life-saving medication for 17 days.

The man, who has asked for anonymity, was first detained at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near to Heathrow Airport on Monday, November 1.

The 42-year-old Birmingham resident was removed from a scheduled charter flight to Kingston, Jamaica, and is due to be released on Wednesday (November 17).

READ MORE:HIV patient inside Heathrow detention centre ‘wakes up sweating every night’ without life saving medication

As a HIV patient, the man relies on daily medication to reduce his viral load to undetectable levels. His medication also helps to maintain a strong and healthy immune system that can prevent illnesses from entering his body.

Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near London’s Heathrow Airport is for males only

Without it, his viral load will regress and rapidly increase, weakening his immune system and making it more vulnerable to illnesses.

He told MyLondon: “Because I’m not on the right medication, my body is changing.

“It’s all to do with my medication and not being on the right amount so my immune system is weak. That’s why I’ve caught the flu.”

The man went on to say staff believed he had caught Covid-19 because he was struggling to breathe, however he insists it is because of being denied medication, or being prescribed the wrong amount.

He is also a recovering heroin addict, and has been suffering from withdrawal symptoms because medical staff at the centre have prescribed him with a considerably lower methadone dosage than what he normally takes.

Before being detained, the man was on 55ml of methadone a day, but staff dropped this to more than half at 25ml a day, which he claims was “without consoling him”.

A security guard walks around the long-term wing at the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near London's Heathrow Airport

A security guard walks around the long-term wing at the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near London’s Heathrow Airport

A drastically lower dosage of methadone has left the man in agony with body aches, lack of sleep, vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps and hot and cold sweats, and says he has lost two stone since he was first detained.

The man fears he will relapse once he is released from Colnbrook because of the symptoms he has endured over the last few weeks.

He added: “I’ve just gone into depression, I’m in pain and now they’re making it worse. Do I have to do something drastic to be listened to?What can I do? The world needs to know what they’re doing to people because it’s not right.”

The man also takes a combination of anti-psychotics and antidepressants for his paranoid schizophrenia, depression and PTSD – but was left without antidepressants for the first 10 days at Colnbrook.

Hannah Ward, a National AIDS Trust director, previously told MyLondon: “It is unacceptable for anyone’s HIV treatment regimen to be interrupted because of detention and it’s shameful that this is not the first case of this kind. Missing just one or two doses of treatment can have serious adverse effects on a person’s health.

“Detention centres must have protocols in place to ensure continued access to all necessary medication. On site access to primary care isn’t enough. The Home Office must act now to prevent any more people living with HIV being detained without access to HIV treatment.

“Detention should always be a last resort. If continuity of medication cannot be guaranteed the person must not be detained.”

Campaign group, Movement for Justice were joined a few weeks ago by mothers and partners of detainees currently held inside the detention centres

Campaign group, Movement for Justice were joined a few weeks ago by mothers and partners of detainees currently held inside the detention centres

A Home Office spokesperson previously told MyLondon that the man was receiving “necessary clinical support” and “additional specialist appointments”, however he “wholeheartedly” rejects these claims.

He said: “Specialist appointments? If I had those I would’ve gone to them, they’re talking lies, its rubbish – all they’ve asked me is who my doctor is at home. That’s it. I wholeheartedly reject those statements.”

However, the Home Office said they won’t be commenting further on the man’s case.

They said: “All decisions on dosages and medical support are not being made by the Home Office, they’re all being made by healthcare professionals in the NHS.

“These are fundamentally not Home Office issues.”

The Home Office wanted to deport the man on the grounds of previous criminal convictions, which were committed and served in the UK – a drug offence and one case of common assault.

He first arrived in the UK in 1990 when he was nine years old.

(Centre) Home Secretary, Priti Patel, the Home Office said they won't be commenting further on the man's case

Home Secretary, Priti Patel, the Home Office said it won’t be commenting further on the man’s case

After losing five family members in the space of less than three months, the man suffered a mental breakdown in prison and subsequently became a heroin user.

He adds: “I’ve come out of jail and I’ve kept myself to myself. All of a sudden I’m not doing anything wrong – but I’m told I’m in breach (of living in the UK). I said I cannot be in breach, I’ve got no letters – I’ve had nothing, that’s the case for me at the moment, it’s just hard and my medication is not right.”

Karen Doyle, national organiser of campaign group, Movement for Justice, says suffering an acute methadone withdrawal is “worse than a heroin withdrawal.”

She previously told MyLondon: “If you don’t lower it incrementally then people going into withdrawal suffer a really awful withdrawal that’s worse than a heroin withdrawal.”

Just four individuals boarded the charter flight from Birmingham Airport after 33 legal challenges stopped detainees from boarding the flight last week.

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It marked the fourth mass deportation flight to Jamaica since the 2018 Windrush scandal broke.

Home Secretary Priti Patel responded by saying: “I make no apology for removing foreign national offenders who have committed crimes which will have had a devastating impact on their victims.

“The people removed to Jamaica on Wednesday are convicted criminals who have been found guilty of a range of serious offences. They have no place in our society.”

The NHS has been contacted by MyLondon.

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https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/hiv-patient-inside-detention-centre-22191869

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