About 12 inmates in Lapu-Lapu City Jail were placed in an isolation cell after testing positive for tuberculosis recently.
Lapu-Lapu City Jail Warden Renante Rubio said seven of 10 inmates tested positive for the disease during the Tuberculosis Awareness celebration last year.
Rubio said a Japanese firm called Trigger Co. paid P200,000 for the TB testing of their inmates and 750 out of 1,200 underwent testing. Five more inmates tested positive for TB.
“We have so many inmates who contracted TB before being detained. The congestion caused the disease to spread,” Rubio said.
Rubio said their isolation cell can accommodate 40 inmates.
Aside from TB, the isolation cell can also accommodate inmates with diabetes and hypertension as well as those recovering from gunshot wounds.
READ: 12 Lapu inmates test positive for TB
However those with TB and other communicable illnesses are detained separately.
Rubio said he is talking with Trigger Co. owner Tomoyoshi Miyagaki to help build a TB facility that will cost half a million pesos.
The regional Department of Health office said TB cases rose in jails for the past few years.
It said they recorded 70 inmates infected with TB virus in Cebu City Jail and 12 inmates in Lapu-Lapu City Jail in the first quarter of this year.
Regional TB nurse coordinator, Joy Tabotabo said one of their programs is to build TB-DOTS (Directly Observed Training Short Course) facilities inside the jail along with a medicine supply and trained personnel.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza ordered the Lapu-Lapu City jail to screen inmates and isolate those with infectious diseases. She said she will also study plans to expand the jail.