INDIANTOWN, Fla., Jan. 26 (UPI) -- At least two prisoners at a South Florida prison have been diagnosed with meningitis, officials said.
The Martin Correctional Institution has been temporarily closed to new inmates, TCPalm.com reported. A Corrections Department official said they were being held at reception centers around Florida.
"We're not going to let any movement in or out of the institution," Gretl Plessinger, a department spokeswoman, said.
The two inmates who became sick lived in a dormitory holding 250 prisoners, Plessinger said. Martin in Indiantown has a total capacity of more than 1,500.
Renay Rouse of the Martin County Health Department said bacterial meningitis was diagnosed in the first inmate Sunday and the second on Monday. Both were hospitalized Tuesday.
She said a third, also in a hospital, may have meningitis.
The disease is an inflammation of the lining around the brain, usually resulting from an infection by a virus or bacterium spread by close physical contact. The disease is fatal in about 10 percent of cases and can cause long-term complications.
