Yerawada jail ready to combat swine flu

The prison now has an 8-10 bed quarantine ward at its hospital. However, so far no prisoner has contracted the disease

The Yerawada Central Prison administration will soon have its own quarantine ward in the prison hospital as a precautionary measure.
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"Fortunately, we don't have a single H1N1 case in Yerawada jail, even though Pune have the maximum cases of infections and deaths," said Uddhav Kamble, inspector general of state prisons. "There are 3,361 male and 303 female prisoners in the jail and we worry that about their proximity to each other in the jail premises could spread swine flu," he said. And with 15-30 new prisoners added every day, the chances of infection are higher.
Everyone's checked
When the virus took over Pune over a month ago, the jail authorities did a thorough checkup of ever prisoner.

"We have a health card system by which every prisoner's health status can be monitored by a team of doctors," said Kamble. The prison hospital has 30 beds.

The jail authorities will also allow suspected patients to be transferred to Sassoon Hospital for further treatment. "I have given strict instructions to all the nine central prisons and 31 district jails in Maharashtra to combat the swine flu menace," he added.

Enough Tamiflu
Dr D M Raut, chief medical officer, Yerawada Central Prison, said the one prisoner who showed swine flu symptoms about 15 days ago was sent to Sassoon Hospital for further check up. The prisoner has since tested negative and is now undergoing treatment for TB.

"It is a hard work, but we check every new prisoner that comes here," said Raut.

The prison hospital also has enough Tamiflu in case of an emergency.