Al Jazeera Net obtains records of tuberculosis patients in Saydnaya prison Health news
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Al Jazeera Net obtained records of tuberculosis patients in Saydnaya prison, which indicate the spread of the disease among prisoners, under prison conditions that are described as terrible.
The register shows cases of tuberculosis among prisoners in the years 2020 and 2021. The register is written in a primitive manner without any medical details about the patient’s condition or medical history, and is limited to treatment doses.
It was noteworthy that one of the pages of the record had an imprint of what appeared to be military boots.
Amnesty says that since 2011, thousands of people have died in the prisons of the former Syrian regime while being held in torture prisons, and tens of thousands more have been subjected to horrific torture.
People were subjected to severe beatings, rape, electric shocks, etc., often to extract forced “confessions”.
Anyone suspected of opposing the Syrian government was at risk, and conditions in detention centers were brutal.
“People are dying from hunger, they do not even have access to basic health care, they die from infected wounds and ingrown toenails, and they suffer from severe mental health problems due to overcrowding and lack of sunlight,” the organization said.
Human slaughterhouse
Saydnaya Prison is located 30 kilometers north of the capital, Damascus, and is called the “human slaughterhouse” due to the torture, deprivation, and overcrowding inside. It was nicknamed the “Red Prison” as a result of the bloody events it witnessed during the year 2008.
Saydnaya Prison was built in 1987 and is divided into two parts. The first part is known as the “Red Building,” which is designated for political and civilian detainees, while the other is known as the “White Building,” which is designated for military prisoners.
Trauma
Last month, doctors from Doctors Without Borders spoke about patients who were recently released from prisons in Damascus after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The organization said – in a statement – that most of the cases bore signs of trauma. They seemed shocked by what happened to them due to various types of torture, whether physical, psychological or sexual.
The doctors said, “In addition to being deprived of food and sunlight, most of the prisoners were crying intensely and unable to sleep. They are always alert and afraid. They are shaking, they cannot concentrate, they cannot speak properly. Most of them do not feel safe. They are afraid of returning to prison.” “They suffer from fear of closed spaces, and some of them even requested to receive medical care in an open place.”
The statement added, “We received a former detainee who spent 8 years in Saydnaya prison. She is now 27 years old. She went to prison with her young son, who was 3 months old. She was released with her son, who is 8 years and 3 months old now. The boy does not know what a biscuit, juice, bird, or even a toy to play with is. He does not know how to read or write. He does not know his family or his father. He witnessed his mother being subjected to physical and sexual violence.”
The doctors also received a patient who was released from prison. He was crying and shaking and could not pronounce a correct sentence. He still cannot believe that he was released from prison. He was shocked by seeing the body of his friend who had been lying dead in the same cell for two days after being beaten to death. Death by a soldier.
Bacterial disease
Tuberculosis is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a bacteria that usually attacks the lungs, but may cause damage to other organs in the body. Anatomically, tuberculosis leads to cell death called “caseous necrosis,” where the tissue takes on the appearance of cheese. .
The disease also causes lung cavities, which causes some to describe the anatomical appearance of an infected person’s lung as “Swiss cheese,” due to the shape of the white tissue and bubbles that resemble cheese bubbles.
TB bacteria are transmitted through the air when an infected person sneezes, coughs, or even speaks.
Complications of TB include liver infection and bone infection, which leads to the destruction of joints. TB may also reach the brain, causing meningitis, which threatens the patient’s life.
Complications include kidney damage and inflammation of the membranes surrounding the heart muscle, which may lead to fluid accumulation around the heart and may cause death.
