BACOLOD City – The City Health Office will conduct an immunization today against measles among inmates in the Bureau of Jail and Management and Penology facility in Barangay Handumanan.
Twenty-five male inmates in the Handumanan District Jail have acquired suspected measles, according to the CHO.
Some 820 inmates and personnel in the Male Dormitory and 205 inmates in the Female Dormitory will be immunized, said Dr. Grace Tan, head of the CHO’s Environment and Sanitation Division.
Tan said they were still waiting for the results of the laboratory test that would confirm whether or not what infected the inmates was really measles.
But already the Department of Health Region 6 has declared a measles outbreak at the Handumanan District Jail, said Tan.
According to the CHO official, the immunization will prevent the inmates’ visitors from acquiring the virus and spreading it outside the facility.
Nineteen male inmates will not be covered by today’s vaccination because they were sick and have been isolated, Tan said.
Many of the male inmates started having fever and rashes on the last week of October.
At the time the BJMP was celebrating the National Correctional Consciousness Week and many visitors went to the District Jail.
Tan said the BJMP suspected the virus came from one of the visitors./PN
