The same flu virus, H1N1 (swine flu virus) that caused the global pandemic a number of years ago is said to be responsible for the outbreak, according to state officials.
Officials also said the 35-year-old inmate, who died Friday at a Terre Haute hospital after falling ill at the Putnamville Correctional Facility, was also infected with the MRSA superbug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, reports KSL.com.
Michael Mitcheff, chief medical officer for the Indiana Department of Correction, said the flu virus, in combination with the staph infection “added fuel to the fire” when the man became sick last week, and his condition deteriorated very quickly. Preliminary autopsy results released on Monday say the inmate, a Mexican national who had been in the prison since the middle of last year, died of pneumonia.
CNN News is reporting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says in their weekly flu report that the H1N1 flu strain is one of the predominate strains causing the flu this year.
Indiana Department of Corrections spokesman Ike Randolph said there are 35 inmates with flu-like symptoms at the Putnamville Correctional Facility near Greencastle. There are 13 inmates in the Terre Haute Regional Hospital, including two in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
One of those men in the ICU has been placed on a ventilator after developing respiratory difficulties. The other man has a very low white blood cell count, pointing to him probably having pneumonia. At least two members of the prison staff have been sickened by the flu virus and are also being treated.
Inmates began getting sick on Friday, and prison officials reached out to the Department of Corrections and the CDC for help in testing the 1,500 prisoners at the facility. Prisoners were falling ill very quickly, and some of them were showing serious symptoms.
Dr. Mitcheff said, “a few men were having trouble breathing and coughing up blood. They were sent immediately to the hospital, he said, and found to have “rapidly progressive pneumonia.” Inmates were previously offered flu vaccine, and those who did not take the flu shot have been offered them again.
In related news, the UK’s Telegraph is reporting that the H1N1 flu virus has reached “epidemic” proportions in St. Petersburg, Russia, where at least 30 people have died since it started in December.
“This virus is covered by all the vaccines currently available. Everyone who has died so far in St Petersburg was not vaccinated,” said Igor Nikonorov, a senior staff member at the Federal Flu Research Institute in St Petersburg.
