MOSCOW, Nov 2 (AFP) - Russian jails house some 32,000 HIV positive prisoners and nearly 50,000 inmates with tuberculosis (TB), out of a total prison population of 808,000, according to justice ministry figures presented to parliament on Wednesday.

This year 1,000 more prisoners were found to be infected with the HIV virus, which leads to AIDS, than in 2004, while cases of tuberculosis had fallen by 1,500, the ministry said.

The ministry's survey in September recorded a total of 32,062 HIV positive inmates and 49,334 TB sufferers, and was released to lawmakers in the lower house of parliament, the Duma, and to the press in an unusual step by Justice Minister Yuri Chaika.

Ludmila Alpern of the non-governmental Moscow Center for Prison Reform told AFP the decrease in TB cases was due to better treatment of the disease in prisons and a large drop in 2003 in the prison population.

"At the start of the decade, the situation for inmates with tuberculosis was very difficult. Between 2002 and 2004, major improvements were made in this area, with new, efficient treatments introduced," Alpern said.

A large amnesty in 2000 had benefited those with advanced tuberculosis, she added.

The rise in HIV cases "is not caused by an epidemic in prisons but reflects the general trend in the country," Alpern claimed.

Russia's Federal AIDS Centre put the number of HIV sufferers in the country at 305,000 in March, while the UN's UNAIDS programme estimates a far higher figure of 860,000.

The country's jail population has risen sharply over the past year, from just over 763,000 in September 2004 to more than 808,000 12 months later, with nearly 15,000 of those detained aged under 18.

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