The Adams County Health Department admonished the Aurora immigration detention center over a lack of access to staff and poor communication in a new report detailing the county’s investigation into allegations of widespread illness at the facility earlier this year.
On Jan. 2, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment passed an anonymous complaint on to the Adams County Health Department’s Communicable Disease Epidemiology program alleging widespread gastrointestinal and respiratory illness inside the Aurora detention center — a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility that is managed by the private prison company GEO Group.
Days later, the health department received a second complaint from “multiple” anonymous sources, the report said. The complaints reported possible gastrointestinal illness among kitchen staff, prompting an on-site investigation from the health agency.
The report said 1,400 detainees were potentially exposed. The Denver Post previously reported the health investigation was sparked by reports from advocacy groups, which said they’d heard descriptions of fever, vomiting and dehydration among detainees throughout the facility.
In an emailed statement, GEO Group director of corporate relations Christopher V. Ferreira said the Aurora immigrant detention center provides “high quality support services” that comply with federal government standards.
“The support services provided at the center include around-the-clock access to medical care,” Ferreira wrote. “Detainees at the center are provided with access to teams of medical professionals, including physicians, nurses, dentists, psychologists and psychiatrists. Ready access to off-site medical specialists, imaging facilities, emergency medical services and local community hospitals is also provided when needed.”
Ferreira did not address The Denver Post’s questions about whether the facility denied or delayed the county health department’s access to staff or detainees.
Representatives from ICE’s Denver field office could not be reached for comment on Friday.
The Adams County Health Department did not identify anyone meeting the case definition of an outbreak during the on-site investigation. The county provided outbreak response materials to the facility, including stool collection kits and resources for reporting, preventing and controlling gastrointestinal illness, the report said.
“ACHD did not conduct management interviews with health services, security or facilities due to delays caused by the facility’s legal counsel on the day of the onsite investigation,” the report said. “Despite repeated attempts to coordinate follow-up interviews with these representatives through consultation with the GeoGroup legal counsel, ACHD was not given access to these representatives to complete the standard investigation interviews.”
On Jan. 27, the Adams County Health Department was notified by an outside medical provider of a detainee with a case of yersiniosis — a food-borne, bacterial infection most often caused by the handling or eating of raw or undercooked pork.
The health department notified the Aurora detention center of the diagnosis and identified both the detention center and the external medical facility where the case was treated as potential exposure locations for the illness, the report said. The detainee was also diagnosed with norovirus.
On Feb. 11, county health officials interviewed the sick detainee by phone but did not identify a source of the yersiniosis infection. They did identify a likely exposure for norovirus outside of the detention center, the report said.
“The phone interview with the yersiniosis case was significantly delayed from the original request due to (Communicable Disease Epidemiology’s) delayed access to the case patient,” the report said. “Prompt interviews for cases of communicable disease are essential to prevent further transmission and identify potential sources of exposure.”
No additional cases of yersiniosis were reported by the detention center in the four weeks following the original infection, the report said.
No lab specimens were collected on the day of the on-site investigation. No stool specimen kits provided to the facility were received for testing, the report said.
“While some investigation components were completed, interviews with management were continually delayed by the facility and ultimately ACHD was not provided with access to them,” the report read.
The health department said it provided the ICE facility with opportunities to identify illness and recommendations to improve communication between the department and the facility “to ensure timely completion of investigation requirements for any future reportable conditions.”
Those recommendations included:
- Providing public health officials with timely access to staff per routine investigation procedures
- Reinstating communications between health staff at the detention facility and the Adams County Health Department to manage reportable conditions and identify outbreaks
- Establish routine, quarterly meetings with the county and GEO Group staff for regular check-ins on “shared priorities” related to communicable disease awareness, prevention and response
The county shared the investigation’s findings and recommendations to detention facility staff via email and video conference, the report said.
“No (Aurora detention center) staff have followed through on the recommended routine communication since the outbreak was completed,” the report read.
