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New scabies outbreak at Michigan prison for women led to quarantine

Posted at 9:34 AM, May 22, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-22 09:34:28-04

YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — Officials say a new scabies outbreak at Michigan’s only prison for women led to a quarantine at the facility so inmates could get treatment.

The Michigan Department of Corrections confirmed Tuesday that a residential unit at Huron Valley prison near Ypsilanti was placed under quarantine Friday. The Detroit Free Press reports 83 prisoners in the unit were treated for the parasitic mites that burrow under the skin and lay eggs.

MLive.com reports the unit returned to normal operations Saturday. Department spokesman Chris Gautz says the hope “is that we contain this and it doesn’t spread any further.”

The department was sued in April , with the lawsuit saying prisoners suffered severe itching and permanent scarring because officials took more than a year to diagnose and properly treat an earlier scabies outbreak .