STAFF AND INMATES at one of Ireland’s largest prisons are being tested for tuberculosis after a majority of prison staff were tested positive for the disease.
It is understood that of 45 staff who were tested for the infection, 30 staff tested positive for latent TB. This form of infection is not contagious, but progresses to an active disease is around ten per cent of cases.
The HSE this afternoon said it was continuing its investigations in accordance with the national guidelines on managing TB infections. A spokeswoman stressed that there were, as yet, no infectious cases of the disease.
A full programme of testing is now expected at the prison, which employs around 350 people. Cloverhill has an operational prisoner capacity of 431.
A spokesman for the Irish Prisons Service confirmed that the HSE was investigating an instance of TB diagnosis in an Irish prison.
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