As a precautionary measure, the other inmates – 390 male, 231 female and 29 children — were examined, as was the prison staff.
Eighty-five inmates of Byculla Women's Prison, one male prisoner and a four-month-old boy were admitted to Sir JJ Hospital on Friday morning for vomiting, nausea and diarrhoea. They had been ill since Thursday night.
Though the condition of all the patients is said to be stable, they have been shifted to the disaster management ward. Two inmates — one is 24-weeks pregnant and the other, 26 weeks — have been shifted to the gynaecology ward. The baby boy, whose mother is also in hospital, is in the paediatric ward.
According to the officers at Byculla jail, some inmates experienced stomachache on Thursday night and began vomiting, and were administered doxycycline. Soon, other inmates began showing the same symptoms. "They did not fall ill due to the antibiotic," Dr Wiquar Shaikh, medicine unit head at Sir JJ Hospital, said.
"It looks like an outbreak of a monsoon-related ailment. We have taken their blood, urine, and stool samples and sent it for testing," he added.
"It can be due to contaminated water or food," opined Dr Mukund Tayade, dean of Sir JJ Hospital, adding, "All the patients are stable and we have kept them for observation. We are still investigating the clinical history of the cases."
As a precautionary measure, the other inmates – 390 male, 231 female and 29 children — were examined, as was the prison staff.
"When the inmates began vomiting and become dehydrated, we called the doctors," said Rajvardhan Sinha, Inspector General (prisons), "The number of cases started increasing within a few minutes. The civic body has taken water samples and the FDA has taken food samples and sent them for testing."
At The Hospital
Two of the inmates are pregnant, while one of the patients is a four-month-old baby boy whose mother is a prisoner and is also in Sir JJ Hospital
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