AT LEAST 30 cases of latent tuberculosis have been identified among prison officers at Cloverhill Prison in Dublin.
It is understood the officers were tested after coming into contact with about six prisoners suspected of having TB.
Tests on 45 officers which came back yesterday showed at least 30 officers, and possibly up to 42, had contracted TB.
The Health Service Executive said its investigations were “ongoing”, adding: “There are no infectious cases in the prison setting.”
Latent TB is a non-infectious type of infection which puts people at risk of developing the disease in later life.
The Irish Prison Officers’ Association was seeking urgent engagement with the executive. Assistant general secretary Gabriel Keaveney said there was concern among members and they would like full and regular briefings in order to allay any fears they had.
Separately, the executive has confirmed a patient with TB was in the emergency department of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for five days and as a result three other patients who were in “close contact” with the TB patient had now been offered screening to see whether they had contracted it.
TB is a serious respiratory disease and is caused by bacteria that is passed by droplet infection – for example, through breathing in droplets sneezed or coughed by someone with TB.
It is understood the patient went to the emergency department about two weeks ago. In the last two weeks, the number of patients on trolleys in the department hit a record high of 58.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said: “When you have overcrowding to the level that exists in the Lourdes hospital, that creates unacceptable risks.”
The executive said someone had to be adjacent to, or very close to, the infected person for in excess of eight to 10 hours to be at risk of developing TB. The executive said it had assessed the risk to everybody who attended the emergency department over the period involved and three people who were potentially at risk had been contacted and screened.
The results of the screenings are not yet known.