Jail on Alert After Case of Meningitis

More than 50 inmates in the Theo Lacey branch of the Orange County Jail were placed on antibiotics this week after a 29-year-old inmate was found to have bacterial meningitis, which can be fatal if not treated.

Dr. Ernest Williams, the county’s medical director for jails, said no other cases have been reported, and his department is “doing everything we can to prevent an outbreak of meningitis in the jail.”

Williams said the inmates who lived in the same barracks as the infected man are being given antibiotics twice a day and have been educated about the disease, which he said can be transmitted through body fluids but is not spread easily.

Symptoms of bacterial meningitis are similar to that of the flu, including a fever, nausea, vomiting, headaches and a general malaise, Williams said.

The infected inmate was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange on Tuesday morning. Inmates said he had been vomiting and coughing up blood and had a fever.

“His condition is stable and he has improved since the time he went into the hospital,” Williams said. “His prognosis is good.”

Between seven and 25 cases of bacterial meningitis have been reported in the county within the last four years, Williams said.