Golden – A second wave of E. coli illness has hit the Jefferson County Jail while an inmate claims he and others are not getting appropriate medical care.
The small secondary outbreak of the intestinal illness began to appear July 16.
“The doctors predicted there would be a secondary outbreak,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said Monday.
The secondary outbreak has caused about 12 cases.
About 135 of the facility’s 1,300 inmates have reported symptoms including abdominal cramping, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms since July 1. Most have recovered fully.
“Anyone showing any symptoms is being kept in housing units away from other inmates,” Kelley said, with 33 inmates in the isolated units on Monday.
The illness is caused by shiga toxin-producing E. coli, a family of bacteria that has been associated with eating undercooked beef and other foods contaminated with human or animal feces.
It also can be spread person to person, which is common in group facilities. The bacteria causing the jail illnesses most likely came from infected food handlers, county health officials said.
Kelley said 48 inmate workers were removed from the kitchen until they were cleared.
Inmates were brought in from Adams, Arapahoe, Denver and Douglas counties to assist in the interim.
Inmate James John Sanchez said in an e-mail sent Sunday on his behalf that he has been sick for 21 days and made numerous requests before he was treated.
“I need to get to a hospital. I am getting worse each passing day,” Sanchez’s e-mail said.
Kelley said Sanchez has been seen by medical staff on “a number of occasions.”
Kelley also disputed Sanchez’s contention that inmates aren’t being given medications except Tylenol and that Tylenol isn’t being given if the inmates don’t have money in their inmate accounts.
“We have had some inmates on IV fluids, some have received Tylenol, some have received pain medication,” Kelley said.
Some medications sought by inmates are not being given, Kelley said. “Sometimes what they think they need is not the best for them based on medical expertise.”
Jail officials are absorbing the medical costs, Kelley said.
Sanchez’s e-mail complained of unsanitary conditions in the isolation units, saying the inmates are being asked to clean up. Kelley said cleaning crews sanitize the units twice a day.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
