US : 8 jail detainees have MRSA infection

Via Las Cruces Sun News :

" Eight of the about 850 detainees at the Doña Ana County Detention Center have been diagnosed with a highly contagious, drug-resistant bacterial infection.

Mary Lulu Hernandez's son is one of them and fears that the infection - MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) - could spread to officers or the world outside the walls of the jail.

Hernandez's son, a heroin addict, came into the jail already infected, she said.

But Detention Director Chris Barela said the jail is aware of the situation and people shouldn't worry about an outbreak.

"Jails, just as part of their environments, are going to have one or two or three (detainees) who have MRSA-related illness, just because of the conditions that they come from, the socioeconomic background, the stuff they've been involved in," said Barela on Thursday. "Often, those people who come in with MRSA go untreated until they get into the jail, when they get some treatment."