AFTER being made aware of inmates’ descriptions of Corporate Area police lock-ups Professor Peter Figueroa, professor of public health and epidemiology at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, has warned of potential faecal-oral diseases that could be a threat to their health.

Figueroa also expressed that public health authorities should intervene in what he described as an undignified environment.

“If the conditions are as bad as they [detainees] describe, it is not acceptable. Humans should not be kept in degrading conditions that could threaten their health — it is as simple as that.

“People should not be standing in faeces when they are having a shower. If you are in a condition where you’re smelling faeces and walking through faeces, it’s degrading. Even for people who are locked up and being punished… it’s not appropriate,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“There is a number of what we call faecal-oral diseases that are spread by faecal-oral route. In other words, the whole point is that if faeces are in the environment, you run the risk of getting a variety of diarrhoea diseases,” Figueroa continued.

A few diseases that can be spread through the faecal-oral route include hepatitis A, hepatitis E, cholera, adenovirus, and E. coli. These diseases occur due to the viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites that can spread through faecal-oral transmission.

“Some of those diseases are quite severe — you can get vomiting, diarrhoea, skin conditions,” Figueroa added.

Further, Figueroa said cholera is only possible if the cholera bacterium is introduced.

“As far as we know, it is not present in Jamaica. Haiti has a problem with cholera because of a very unfortunate situation there which was introduced from outside. But for Jamaica, up to this point, we don’t have cholera currently,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“Having to step in faeces, it is unhygienic, unhealthy, and it’s degrading if that is the case. It is not satisfactory, and really there should be some inspection by the public health authorities or environment health officers and an attempt made to clean up the place and put in the proper sanitary facilities.”

Figueroa added: “Our facilities, we know, are often overcrowded but we should definitely at least keep them at a basic hygienic standard. The very people who are supervising and managing the situation could get ill as well, not just the inmates. This being exposed is important.”