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Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/arti...Health+concerns+closed+2+Jefferson+courtrooms
Health concerns closed 2 Jefferson courtrooms
By Jason Riley ? jriley@courier-journal.com ? September 28, 2009
Two Jefferson district courtrooms were shut down the past few weeks because of possible infections spread from one and mold growing in the other, said Jefferson District Judge Sean R. Delahanty.
Courtroom 302 in the Hall of Justice was closed after two prosecutors with the Jefferson County attorney's office contracted staph infections and because there was something, believed to be food residue, leaking down a wall, Delahanty said last week.
The courtroom was reopened late last week after city maintenance workers cleaned the area and shampooed the carpets.
Delahanty said that others who work in 302 or other nearby courtrooms as well as an attorney conference room have become sick in recent years, but he was unsure of what caused the illnesses.
He said some inmates from Louisville Metro Corrections have been infected with the penicillin-resistant staph infection known as MRSA ? or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ? while incarcerated and that they are often transported from the jail to holding cells above the courtrooms.
?It's not unforeseeable that if there is MRSA in the jail that it is going to come to the Hall of Justice,? Delahanty said.
He said he didn't know what form of staph infection the prosecutors had.
Pam Windsor, a spokeswoman for Metro Corrections, said she had not heard about the problems in Courtroom 302 but acknowledged that some inmates have had MRSA and ?we've taken precautions? to separate them and cover infected areas when they are taken to court.
Windsor said Metro Corrections currently had four inmates with MRSA, out of more than 2,000 total inmates.
Bill Patteson, a spokesman for the county attorney's office, confirmed that two prosecutors have gotten sick, one recently and the other in past months, but that he could not discuss their illnesses because of personnel confidentiality laws.
Patteson said Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell is looking into the problems and is working with metro government on the cleanliness of the courts.
?It is a concern,? Patteson said.
Health concerns closed 2 Jefferson courtrooms
By Jason Riley ? jriley@courier-journal.com ? September 28, 2009
Two Jefferson district courtrooms were shut down the past few weeks because of possible infections spread from one and mold growing in the other, said Jefferson District Judge Sean R. Delahanty.
Courtroom 302 in the Hall of Justice was closed after two prosecutors with the Jefferson County attorney's office contracted staph infections and because there was something, believed to be food residue, leaking down a wall, Delahanty said last week.
The courtroom was reopened late last week after city maintenance workers cleaned the area and shampooed the carpets.
Delahanty said that others who work in 302 or other nearby courtrooms as well as an attorney conference room have become sick in recent years, but he was unsure of what caused the illnesses.
He said some inmates from Louisville Metro Corrections have been infected with the penicillin-resistant staph infection known as MRSA ? or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ? while incarcerated and that they are often transported from the jail to holding cells above the courtrooms.
?It's not unforeseeable that if there is MRSA in the jail that it is going to come to the Hall of Justice,? Delahanty said.
He said he didn't know what form of staph infection the prosecutors had.
Pam Windsor, a spokeswoman for Metro Corrections, said she had not heard about the problems in Courtroom 302 but acknowledged that some inmates have had MRSA and ?we've taken precautions? to separate them and cover infected areas when they are taken to court.
Windsor said Metro Corrections currently had four inmates with MRSA, out of more than 2,000 total inmates.
Bill Patteson, a spokesman for the county attorney's office, confirmed that two prosecutors have gotten sick, one recently and the other in past months, but that he could not discuss their illnesses because of personnel confidentiality laws.
Patteson said Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell is looking into the problems and is working with metro government on the cleanliness of the courts.
?It is a concern,? Patteson said.