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| Hepatitis A surfaces at Plymouth County jail |
| By Brockton Enterprise |
| Published: 07/19/2004 |
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Two prisoners at the Plymouth County (Mass.) jail were diagnosed with hepatitis A, but one state official said the risk of others contracting the disease from the pair was "low." Alfred DeMaria, director of communicable disease control for the state Department of Public Health, said neither of the prisoners were food handlers - a common way of spreading the virus - and there was no cause for alarm. "The risk is low," he said. Mike Seele, spokesman for Sheriff Joseph McDonough, said the ill inmates were treated in the jail's medical unit while everyone else who came into contact with them - both inmates and jail workers - were immunized. Those two inmates were part of the sheriff department's orientation unit as "new commitments," Seele said. "Everything is back to normal. There were no other cases," he said. DeMaria said there are several cases of hepatitis A in jails and prisons throughout the state each year. The exact number of hepatitis A cases in jails and prisons in the state was not immediately available. DeMaria said there were several cases in the Hampden County jail in December and January and a case in the Middlesex County jail this year. "It is not uncommon," he said. "Most of the people who are in the prisons and jails were on the street. Life is tough on the street. ... Life is difficult when you are in trouble." |
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