NewsOK.com is reporting that seven inmates in Oklahoma state prisons have been hospitalized in the the last three weeks with Salmonella food poisoning. At the women’s Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft, 47 people are sick. At Jim E. Hamilton Correctional Center in Hodgen, 37 inmates are ill; five of those people were hospitalized. One inmate at the Joseph Harp Correction Center in Lexington and one person at Bill Johnson Correctional Center in Alva were hospitalized.
The illnesses began in late October. Officials say that the cases don’t rise to the level of an outbreak, even though the definition of an outbreak is two or more unrelated persons ill with the same strain of pathogenic bacteria.
Salmonella outbreaks are usually linked to food that is not properly cooked or held at the correct temperature. Chicken is commonly contaminated with Salmonella; when it isn’t cooked to a high enough temperature or left at room temperature too long, an outbreak occurs.
Food poisoning is common in correctional facilities. Last year Food Poisoning Bulletin told you about crowded conditions and other foodborne illness outbreaks at prisons around the country. Person-to-person spread of the illness can happen easily under these conditions. SourceWatch.org says that some of the largest foodborne illness outbreaks occur in correctional facilities.
