Miami-Dade,Department of Health officials announced today that 13 inmates in the women's dorm at the Homestead Correctional Institution have tested positive for A/H1N1 swine flu. One has been hospitalized, but the other cases were apparently mild.
Jo Ellyn Rackleff, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections, told the Miami Herald that all social visits have been suspended. Confirmed cases have been quarantined in their dormitories in an effort to prevent spread of the disease,
According to the Homestead facility’s website, it currently houses 678 female minimum and medium security inmates serving terms for felonies such as grand theft, credit card fraud, aggravated battery, second-degree murder and cocaine sale.
Flu cases tend to spread faster in institutional settings like prisons, schools and dorms in colleges and summer camps where individuals tend to be in close proximity.. This would be the third reported cluster of cases in South Florida, the first being the outbreak in a Palm Beach county Boy Scout troop with at least 21 scouts and adult volunteers infected and the second at the Krome Immigration Detention Center in Miami where earlier this month at least 20 inmates developed flu-like symptoms and 5 tested positive for swine flu.
Dr. Ann Schuchat from the CDC said at a briefing that there are 34 known outbreaks of swine flu in 16 states involving summer camps. No other outbreaks have been reported at other Florida state prisons.
According to this week’s update from the CDC, there have been 941 confirmed swine flu with 2 deaths in Florida.. Nationwide there have been 27,717 cases including 127 deaths.
For more information about swine flu: cdc
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