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Disease Outbreak In Federal Prison Linked To Homemade Booze

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Elena Weissmann Contributor
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Twenty inmates at a federal prison in Mississippi may have contracted botulism, a rare and potentially fatal illness caused by bacteria. The inmates may have fallen ill after drinking homemade alcohol, investigators said.

The outbreak began at the Yazoo City Correctional Institution, a medium-security federal prison, in the first week of June. Over a dozen inmates remain hospitalized and test results for the deadly illness are pending.

Prison brew, known as hooch or pruno, can be made from a mixture of fruits, vegetables, sugar, water, and bread, which provides the yeast for the alcohol to ferment. Prisoners are known to hoard excessive food in their cells in order to make moonshine, and prison authorities confiscate the alcohol whenever they find it.

Similar botulism outbreaks caused by potato-based pruno were reported among inmates at two California prisons in 2004 and 2005.

The Yazoo City institution has temporarily suspended family visits and release of inmates as a precautionary measure. “Additional inmates who may have been exposed are being closely monitored,” the Bureau of Prisons told CNN.

Symptoms of the illness include dry mouth, blurred vision, trouble breathing, nausea, and paralysis, with symptoms appearing between 12 hours and three days after consumption. In rare cases, botulism can lead to death due to respiratory failure, although this occurs in only 3 to 5 percent of patients, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As botulism is not spread from person to person, only those who consumed the brew are at risk.

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Elena Weissmann