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| Antibiotics Dispersed After Calif. Inmate's Death of Meningitis |
| By Milpitas Post |
| Published: 04/24/2003 |
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Santa Clara County (Calif.) Department of Correction authorities and county health officials are keeping a close eye on Elmwood Correctional Facility after a 31-year-old inmate died due to the contraction of bacterial spinal meningitis. No other inmates or jail staff have displayed symptoms of the disease, Department of Correction officials said. Gilbert Rael, who was serving time in Elmwood for outstanding arrest warrants, died April 11 at Valley Medical Center after spending two days at infirmaries in Elmwood and the county's main jail in San Jose. Following the diagnosis of Rael's illness, county health officials prescribed antibiotics to about 200 people at the jail, including inmates and jail staff to ensure safety. 'We haven't had any reports of anything similar,' Department of Correction spokesman Mark Cursi said. According to Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System spokeswoman Joy Alexiou, while no one else at the jail had shown symptoms of the illness, the distribution of antibiotics was performed as a safety measure. She said no one was quarantined. 'At the point he became symptomatic, he is contagious,' Alexiou said. 'Just to be proactive, we wanted to get the antibiotics out there.' Rael was in Elmwood since March 11. Cursi said Rael was a minimum security inmate who was allowed physical contact during jail visitation. Rael was also a food service worker. Cursi said Rael was probably contagious during the period of March 25 to April 3. According to Alexiou, bacterial spinal meningitis has an incubation period of two to four days. As a result, county health officials are scrambling to determine how Rael contracted the fatal illness while in custody at Elmwood. According to Alexiou, the county department of public health will conduct a contact investigation. But, Alexiou said the occurrence of bacterial spinal meningitis, also called meningococcal meningitis, is not always due to transmission. She said an estimated 20 percent of the population walks around with meningitis in their mucous membranes, which is inactive and does not affect the health of people. She said it is medically unknown how the disease activates from its dormant state. |
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