20000313

Surveillance

system in jails

recommended

LAHORE: Punjab Health Department has recommended to the provincial government to establish an active surveillance system in the jails across the province to detect all cases of meningococcal meningitis.

The recommendation was made by a team of the health department, which led by Director Health Services, Punjab visited the Central Jail Gujranwala to evaluate the situation of meningitis outbreak and recommend necessary measures.

The team while expressing concern on over-crowding in Gujranwala jail recommended to the provincial government that necessary steps should be taken to rationalise the number of prisons in relation to the capacity of the jail.

During the visit at Gujranwala Jail, the team noticed that against the official capacity of 560 prisoners, a total of 3,032 prisoners were detained there. The situation was worse in the block of prisoners on judicial remand. The block in which meningitis cases reported had 422 prisoners in a space for only 60 people.

The team recommended to the government that an active surveillance mechanism should be established in the jails under the supervision of Medical Officer of the Prison and DDHO concerned, to detect all cases of meningococcal meningitis, based on an illness with sudden onset of fever and one or more of the neck stiffness, altered consciousness and other signs of meningeal irritation or petechial or purpural rash.ÑPPI