Bahamas tests jail for malaria following outbreak on southern island

Health authorities tested inmates and guards for malaria at an immigration detention center in the capital on Friday as the Bahamian government sought to contain an outbreak of the illness on the southern island of Great Exuma.

Photo: Bahamas tests jail for malaria following outbreak on southern island

There have been 14 confirmed cases of malaria on Great Exuma, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) southwest of Nassau since the first week of June, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a news release Friday. No deaths have been reported from the mosquito-borne illness.

The government decided to conduct the tests at the Carmichael Road Detention Center in Nassau after realizing that a group of suspected illegal immigrants from Haiti were sent to the jail. The migrants were captured in Great Exuma two days after the discovery of malaria on the island, the Ministry of Health said in a statement issued late Thursday.

The malaria parasite is endemic in Haiti. In the Bahamas, malaria transmission does not normally occur.

Bahamian authorities have been screening people on Great Exuma for malaria and spraying pesticides to control the outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that people who plan to travel to the island should consult their doctors beforehand and consider taking anti-malarial medications, reports AP.

O.Ch.