Mandaue, Cebu – A flu outbreak has downed 177 prisoners at the Mandaue City jail since last Friday prompting jail administrators to seal off the prison facility from visitors as they try to contain the outbreak.

At press time, only 28 of prisoners were still suffering from fever as most have recovered, according to the Bureau of Jail Management Penology (BJMP) in Region 7.

Inspector Eric Relutio, deputy warden of the Mandaue City jail, said the BJMP has suspended the scheduled daily visits of prisoners as jail officials are busy cleaning up the facility to contain the flu outbreak that started last Friday.

Dr. Cora Lou Kintanar, spokesperson of the Department of Health in Region 7, said the prisoners were given doses of Vitamin C for their immune system and to strengthen their resistance to viruses and other diseases.

Insp. Relutio said only a few prisoners were ill Tuesday unlike last Friday when the number of ailing prisoners went up.

Relutio said the BJMP regional office in Central Visayas sent a doctor last Saturday to take care of the inmates. Vitamins and medicines were also dispatched to the jail last Saturday to the city jail.

The BJMP 7 said this was the first time that many prisoners had flu all at the same time.

Senior Insp. Mary Jane Inopia, chief of Community Relations Service of BJMP, said that a report from the city jail Tuesday showed the number of sick inmates went down to 28 from 62 the other day.

Inopia said that the BJMP had sought the help of the Department of Health-7 and the City Health Office of Mandaue City for help to the ailing prisoners.

Prior to the incident, the BJMP National headquarters and BJMP-7 issued guidelines on Influenza A(H1N1), Inopia said.

Medical supplies such as gloves, masks, disinfectants and medicines were already distributed to all 30 BJMP-controlled jails within the region. Thermo scanners were provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross to the Cebu City jail and digital thermometers were also given by BJMP-7 to its jail facilities.

Dr. Kintanar said the rapid spread of flu among the inmates prompted health officials in the area to presume that they have been affected with Influenza A (H1N1).

"We performed swab test to six sick inmates who were chosen randomly. We did not even wait for the result. We already gave them Oseltamivir and the rest, paracetamol and Vitamin C," she said.

The test results are set to come out Wednesday.

Most of the inmates belong to the 'high-risk' groups earlier identified by the DoH as those that would be prioritized for Oseltamivir, the antiviral drug used to treat A (H1N1).

Although the jail's medical officer could not truly identify those who have asthma, hypertension, and heart disease among other chronic illnesses, health officials in the region decided to give Oseltamivir to those who are already down with fever while those without fever were given paracetamol or Vitamin C.

"Based on our previous studies, disease transmission is really inevitable here," she said.

In a prison cell that is about 7 by10 feet, there are about 50 prisoners, Dr. Kintanar said.

"That's why many of them have Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B and C, Leptospiros and Leprosy," she added.

As a precautionary measure, health officials advised jail officers to decontaminate the prison cells and to limit jail visits aside from ordering prison guards to wear face masks.

The latest tally of confirmed cases of A (H1N1) still stands at 2,668, three deaths and 2,543 recovered patients, based on the July 9 data of the DoH.