Bahraini human rights activists, including Ebtisam Al-Sayegh, have sounded the alarm over the spread of Tuberculosis in Bahrain's Jau Central prison due to the negligence of authorities.

See this: 2021 Roundup: Human Rights Violations in Bahrain 

According to Al-Sayegh, diseases spread due to poor quality of prison care and deliberate neglect of patients, as well as delayed treatment and overcrowding.

The calls of families of the prisoners to release them continue to be ignored by the Bahraini Ministry of Interior.

According to the prisoner Hassan Abdullah Habib, he fears he may soon die if he is denied proper medical care, adding that other prisoners have shown similar symptoms and have not received any examinations or treatment. 

According to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), all three political prisoners were in Jau Prison with a fourth detainee, who was released in late February for tuberculosis treatment after months of illness, only after fellow prisoners banged on their cell doors in protest, according to a prisoner's testimony.

سجناء البحرين ..
السل ينخر اجسادهم ولا علاج

تتعدد مآسي سجناء الرأي داخل سجون الظلم والقهر والجبروت، والفاعل واحد وواضح للعيان.#أنقذوا_سجناء_البحرين #سجناء_الرأي_يواجهون_الموت#اطلقوا_سجناء_البحرين pic.twitter.com/NVsuj0sMqb

— بحرانية.. ‏لُؤْلُؤةُ الحُرِّيَّة (@Brboura) June 2, 2022

After TB spread to his bones, prisoner Ahmed Jaber was compelled to wear a contraption to keep his head and chest in place and protect his neck from harm.

The three remaining inmates shared a cell with Jaber at various periods, prompting worries that an epidemic of the contagious condition, which is known to spread in jails, may occur.

Habib explained that he suffers from serious blood diseases, sickle cell anemia, and thalassemia, with no adequate care during the eight years he spent in prison.

After he fell seriously ill last week, he was sent to Salmaniya Hospital, where doctors told him that he had tuberculosis. There was fluid in his lungs and testicles, and he had problems with his colon and spinal cord. After one of his lymph nodes was removed, he was sent back to prison.

The family of the second political prisoner, Nizar Al-Wadaei, said that "our son also suffers from symptoms similar to those of tuberculosis and was held in solitary confinement for days."

The family of the third political prisoner, Mortada Muhammad Abd Al-Ridha, who also suffers from similar symptoms, also demanded that he be examined and treated immediately.

Amnesty International comments

Amnesty International posted a Tweet calling the treatment of the prisoners "cruel and senseless."

Read more: Amnesty urges Saudi Arabia to halt execution of 2 Bahraini men

Such indifference to prisoners’ medical needs is both cruel and senseless. Amnesty International has been documenting medical neglect of this kind at Jaw since 2018: https://t.co/lQyaaSb7WF

— Amnesty Bahrain (@aibahrain) June 2, 2022

"Bahraini authorities are acting with gross negligence in the face of confirmed tuberculosis infections at Jau Prison," Amnesty Bahrain tweeted.

Amnesty International has always reported on medical neglect in Bahraini jails, writing in a 2018 report that the system was "marred by regular instances of negligence, delay, and arbitrary exercise of authority which in specific cases rise to the level of intentional ill-treatment."