42 Cebu City inmates have tuberculosis

CEBU CITY — As of the last count, 42 inmates of the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) here are afflicted with tuberculosis.

JO3 Jenesis Mongcova, of the BBRC’s administration section, said the spread of the infectious disease is due to the congestion at the center, which now houses 2,090 inmates.

The BBRC used to have an average of 1,700 inmates everyday. Mongcova said that while there is an average of seven releases a day, there is also an average of 10 commitments per day.

And because BBRC cells are designed to accommodate only 250 inmates, the remaining 1,840 inmates have to stay in the covered court where they sleep on wooden beds.

Of the inmates afflicted with TB, at least two or three are severely infected and confined at the TB Pavilion, while those showing symptoms are being treated at the BBRC’s infirmary.

Councilor Procopio Fernandez, of the city council’s committee on police, fire and penology, said BBRC warden Nestor Velasquez raised the matter during the regular meeting of the Police Coordinating and Advisory Council (PCAC) the other day.

Acting Mayor Michael Rama, who chairs the PCAC, said he would ask Cebu City Medical Center chief Felicitas Manaloto to see what the city government can do to help the BBRC on the matter.

Rama said he would ask his staff to arrange a meeting with Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina and officials of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to address the problem as well as the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the DILG and the city government to create an oversight committee that would be tasked to institute reforms at the BBRC. — Freeman News Service