Prisoners plagued by 'flu-like' illness
Published:Tuesday | August 31, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
Panic has gripped the prison population at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre after a significant number of inmates came down with flu-like symptoms in recent weeks.
Yesterday, acting Commissioner of Corrections Lt Col Sean Prendergast told The Gleaner that his medical team was on top of the situation.
"I am aware of the situation and we are dealing with it," Prendergast told The Gleaner. "There is absolutely no outbreak."
Ailing inmates, as well as others being housed in the facility, are gripped by fear that the symptoms that have invaded the bodies of their cellmates are serious enough to cause untold damage.
Fear that a flu outbreak has hit the downtown, high-security establishment has also infected relatives of the inmates.
Prendergast said medical personnel have, in recent weeks, been visiting Tower Street and other correctional facilities frequently in order to monitor the problem.
However, he did not say whether the so-called flu-like symptoms had found their way into other institutions.
Not the dreaded dengue virus
Prendergast described the symptoms gripping inmates as flu-like, but maintained that it was not the dreaded dengue virus.
"I can confirm that it is not dengue," he declared. "There are flu-like symptoms, but it is definitely not dengue."
"I can assure the public that this is not an outbreak, a number of inmates have come down with flu-like symptoms that are being adequately dealt with by our medical staff," Prendergast insisted.
Obviously worried, relatives of inmates have expressed concern that some of the symptoms resemble dengue fever.
These include chills, headache, pain upon moving the eyes, and lower backache, nose and gum bleed, swollen glands, fever and rash.
Dengue fever triggers painful aching in the legs and joints during the first hours of illness, with the body's temperature rising as high as 104°F (40°C), with a relatively low heart rate and low blood pressure.
However, the concerned family members complained that the affected inmates were not being treated
"That is not true," declared Prendergast. "It appears to be a seasonal flu that is being adequately addressed by the medical team with over-the-counter flu medication."
The Gleaner went outside the high-security facility yesterday and was greeted by some worried relatives who said inmates were panicking after several prisoners got nosebleeds.
"We are reassuring persons that their family members are not in any severe risk at this time," said Prendergast, who took over as head of the Department of Correctional Services after June Spence-Jarrett was transferred to another arm of the public sector.
It was another issue affecting inmates, the fire at the Armadale Juvenile Correctional Centre, that resulted in a cacophony of calls and demands for her removal.