Prison staff face jail quarantine over flu

PRISON staff could face being quarantined in their workplaces if there is a serious outbreak of swine flu in the country’s jails.

This is one of several emergency situations currently being discussed by a high-level government committee tasked with drawing up contingency plans to cope with a swine flu pandemic among Ireland’s 4,000-plus inmates.

Health officials fear that, if the spread of the H1N1 virus accelerates at as fast a pace as it has in Britain, the country’s public services will face their greatest challenge in decades.

A serious outbreak of the virus in the country’s overcrowded prison system would cause particularly severe problems. An Irish Prison Service (IPS) spokesman said: “At a corporate level, the IPS is acutely aware of the possible adverse impact of a swine flu outbreak at prison level and an IPS Contingency Planning Group is considering necessary steps which may have to be considered in the event that significant numbers of cases occur within the prison system, either involving staff or prisoners.”

The IPS has secured supplies of paracetamol, personal protective equipment, hand sanitising gels and disposable tissues. Arrangements have also been made with the HSE for access to Tamiflu through contracted community pharmacists.

However, the Prison Officers’ Association is pushing for their members to be included in the first wave of frontline workers to receive a vaccine for the flu, whose spread is expected to reach its height between September and December. By then it is expected that one million people in Ireland could be infected by the virus, although it is expected the vast majority will be successfully treated at home.

In the event of a major outbreak, hospitals will be inundated and the Inter-Departmental Committee on Public Health Emergency Planning is considering the possibility of opening special clinics to deal with those suffering from the virus.

HSE national director of population health Dr Patrick Doorley said it was inevitable people will die from the virus in Ireland, he added that he “would not be surprised” if a fatality happened within days.

It is believed up to 26,000 people may need hospital treatment for the virus over a four-month period.