By Wilson Ring
The Burlington Free Press
MONTPELIER, Vt. — The Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield was in lockdown Thursday in an effort to control an outbreak of strep throat among inmates and staff, officials said.
State officials say 75 inmates at Southern State Correctional Facility have been stricken with strep throat.
In an effort to keep the strep throat from spreading, inmates are being isolated, and visits outside the prison to courts or other locations are, when possible, being postponed.
“We’re in a what we’re calling a medical lockdown,” Acting Superintendent Ellen McWard said. “We’re asking that nobody come in unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Delores Burroughs-Biron, the Department of Corrections’ health services director, said the outbreak of common group A strep began toward the end of last week. McWard said it was first recognized Sunday.
The medical lockdown was imposed Tuesday. Heidi Tringe, a spokeswoman for the state Agency of Human Services, said the lockdown will last until at least today, and maybe longer.
Sick inmates are being placed on antibiotics. Most will start to feel better within 24 to 48 hours, Burroughs-Biron said.
“We haven’t quite figured out who the index case is, but we have a good idea,” she said. “It has spread quite rapidly.” The “index case” refers to the first person at the prison to have developed the disease.
Corrections officials have been in daily contact with the Health Department, Burroughs-Biron said.
Prisons, like college dorms and elementary schools, are prone to outbreaks of disease because people are in close proximity, Burroughs-Biron said.
Inmates are also being fed with disposable dishes and utensils, she said.
McWard said the prison staff was making accommodations for the inmates.
“We’re trying to make them as happy as we can by showing them a lot of movies in their units. The inmates understand,” McWard said.
None of the inmates has become seriously ill.
McWard, a 26-year veteran of the Corrections Department, said she’d never seen such an outbreak of disease.
Copyright 2007 Burlington Free Press