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Fatal Del Rio jail illness baffles authorities

Web Posted: 08/09/2007 10:52 PM CDT

Don Finley
Express-News Medical Writer

A mysterious illness at a Del Rio detention center that has killed two inmates and hospitalized two others within the past month has baffled health authorities, who have asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for help.

All four men — three of them foreign nationals from Honduras and Mexico held on immigration charges, the fourth a Val Verde county prisoner who was one of the dead — were described as in their 20s and 30s, and apparently healthy when they arrived at the Val Verde Correctional Facility and County Jail.

The privately operated 850-bed medium-security facility is under contract to house federal detainees for the U.S. Marshal's Service and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as local prisoners.

One of the ill inmates was brought to an unidentified San Antonio hospital; the other remains hospitalized in Del Rio. Their conditions have not been released.

"It's still a big mystery to us," said Dr. Sandra Guerra-Cantu, regional medical director of the Texas Department of State Health Services, who is heading the investigation. "I can't tell you that we've figured it out. But we're in the process of requesting assistance from CDC and others to come and help us."

The first inmate became ill in mid- to late July, she said. In each case, symptoms began with erratic behavioral changes, followed by incontinence and dehydration. A host of tests for medical conditions and toxic exposures failed to identify a culprit. And no autopsy has yet been performed on either of the men who died.

"As far as we know, these individuals did not have any contact with one another," said Guerra-Cantu, adding that health officials have not yet recommended any change in operations at the jail except to closely monitor prisoners for similar symptoms.

She said local officials contacted them late last week after the sheriff and local doctors became concerned.

"We have had two sets of teams from the Texas Department of State Health Services visit the facility to interview the medical staff, review the medical records, look at all the laboratory results, as well as request consults from various experts in different fields of health care, to get their ideas about what's going on."

The facility is operated under contract by the Geo Group Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla., company that also runs correctional facilities in San Antonio, Pearsall and Karnes City, and has a regional administrative office in New Braunfels. The company is cooperating with the investigation, Guerra-Cantu said.

"It would be irresponsible for ICE to speculate on this particular matter, but it is something we definitely will be looking into immediately," said Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman for the federal agency that detained the three foreign nationals, adding she had no information about them late Thursday.

Sheriff D'Wayne Jernigan's office referred all questions to state health officials.

According to the Geo Group's Web site, the facility is undergoing an expansion that will increase its capacity to more than 1,400 beds.

In March, Val Verde County and the Geo Group settled a lawsuit with the family of LeTisha Tapia, a 23-year-old federal inmate found hanged in her cell after reporting she'd been sexually assaulted in 2004. Last week, the Associated Press reported that under the terms of that settlement, the county had hired an independent monitor for the prison.

Fatal Del Rio jail illness baffles authorities (http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA081007.01A.delriojail.34a5a72.html)