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Fatal Del Rio jail illness baffles authorities [foreign nationals involved]
San Antonio Express-News ^ | 08/09/2007 | Don Finley

Posted on 08/11/2007 8:55:06 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch

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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

dfinley@express-news.net


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Mexico; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; bocaraton; cdc; dehydration; delrio; disease; epidemiology; geogroup; health; honduras; illness; immigrantlist; incontinence; jail; lrison; pandemic; prison; sickness; tropicaldiseases
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1 posted on 08/11/2007 8:55:10 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
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To: SwinneySwitch; 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 3pools; 3rdcanyon; 4Freedom; ...
symptoms began with erratic behavioral changes, followed by incontinence and dehydration

Neurological? Parasite?

2 posted on 08/11/2007 9:02:37 AM PDT by HiJinx (Learn to take as a measure of success the criticism of your enemies. RL.)
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To: SwinneySwitch; mikrofon; Charles Henrickson
"It's still a big mystery to us," said Dr. Sandra Guerra-Cantu

Oh say Cantu see?

3 posted on 08/11/2007 9:06:14 AM PDT by martin_fierro (The dawn's early blight)
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To: HiJinx
symptoms began with erratic behavioral changes, followed by incontinence and dehydration

Drinking grain alcohol.

4 posted on 08/11/2007 9:07:16 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: martin_fierro

anyone with a hyphenated name

has not a clue

anyway!


5 posted on 08/11/2007 9:08:44 AM PDT by ken21 (28 yrs + 2 families = banana republic junta. si.)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Ah, the joys of open-borders!


6 posted on 08/11/2007 9:08:53 AM PDT by VOA
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To: Roamin53; genxer; time4good; NoTaxTexas; RGVTx; notaliberal; 19th LA Inf; ImpBill; captjanaway; ...

Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.


7 posted on 08/11/2007 9:09:33 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch (US Constitution Article 4 Section 4..shall protect each of them against Invasion...domestic Violence)
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To: HiJinx

perhaps in-house dope deliberately laced with neurotoxic insecticide......one example might be Raid, a common commercially available neurotoxin that could easily be acquired for misuse within any prison


8 posted on 08/11/2007 9:10:16 AM PDT by Vn_survivor_67-68
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To: martin_fierro

Jose Cantu, si?......


9 posted on 08/11/2007 9:11:18 AM PDT by Red Badger (All I know about Minnesota, I learned from Garrison Keilor.............)
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To: martin_fierro
/sigh

now I have to go to the Cantu.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

10 posted on 08/11/2007 9:15:12 AM PDT by expatguy (Support - "An American Expat in Southeast Asia")
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To: SwinneySwitch

It looks like 3 or 4 huge lawsuits. I wonder why autopsies weren’t done. Unidentified diseases doesn’t sound good.


11 posted on 08/11/2007 9:16:35 AM PDT by texastoo ((((((USA)))))((((((, USA))))))((((((. USA))))))))
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To: SwinneySwitch
symptoms began with erratic behavioral changes, followed by incontinence and dehydration

It's Earwigs!

They're eating their brains!!!!


12 posted on 08/11/2007 9:19:36 AM PDT by Condor51 (Rudy makes John Kerry look like a Right Wing 'Gun Nut' Extremist)
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To: SwinneySwitch; Shermy

Tinfoil hat affixed atop my head—but when something like this happens, I can’t help but remember the articles posted here about dopesters and human smugglers working with terrorists, and I wonder if someone was either exposed to a bio weapon, or was bringing one in. Remember the odd rashes one of the 9/11 hijackers had, just before the anthrax appeared...


13 posted on 08/11/2007 9:21:52 AM PDT by MizSterious (A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
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To: texastoo
It looks like 3 or 4 huge lawsuits. I wonder why autopsies weren’t done. Unidentified diseases doesn’t sound good.

This sounds really out of line to me too...huge warning bell going off! "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.

What an invitation for a biological attack by our enemies!

14 posted on 08/11/2007 9:27:42 AM PDT by greyfoxx39 (I think all legal Americans should get 5 votes apiece to make up for the "new" voters.)
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To: SwinneySwitch
How about this? A container/pack with a CBW agent in it, small leak, minimal exposure and the “mule” expires slowly at a later time. Voila’ instant silence. Of course the authorities will run extensive Tox screens but unless they are thinking outside the box it will take a long time to run down
15 posted on 08/11/2007 9:31:50 AM PDT by Polynikes
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To: Velveeta; Rushmore Rocks; WestCoastGal; Cindy; Calpernia

ping


16 posted on 08/11/2007 9:33:02 AM PDT by KylaStarr
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To: texastoo
I know the first one, a Honduran I think, died in a hospital. The Bexar County official said there wasn’t enough reason to autopsy. Don’t know about the Val Verde county prisoner who died.
17 posted on 08/11/2007 9:36:20 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch (US Constitution Article 4 Section 4..shall protect each of them against Invasion...domestic Violence)
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To: KylaStarr

hmmmmmm.........


18 posted on 08/11/2007 9:39:22 AM PDT by Rushmore Rocks
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To: Larry Lucido; Horatio Gates

Wonder if it’s a new strain of that contempt’a-cop disease ?

A bleepin prisoner pandemic I tell ya !


19 posted on 08/11/2007 9:39:54 AM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. ©)
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To: SwinneySwitch; All
“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.”

If this happened in LA or NYC the Feds would be all over it by now!

Guess the CDC has been told ignore the border also.

20 posted on 08/11/2007 9:48:07 AM PDT by wolfcreek (2 bad Tyranny, Treachery and Treason never take a vacation...)
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