Updated - A prisoner who was admitted into intensive care on Saturday after suffering severe chest infection, has died, the government confirmed.

The inmate was one of two admitted to the ITU after a flu outbreak which also affected eight other prisoners, the Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Chris Fearne, said in reply to Opposition questions yesterday.

The condition of the second inmate in ITU is stable.

Dr Fearne told Beppe Fenech Adami and Claudette Buttigieg that, unfortunately, the flu claimed victims both in Malta and abroad.

It was for this reason that the government offered free vaccination to everyone, including those at the prisons. The service is still available.

He said personnel from Public Health Department yesterday visited the prisons and found a number of prisoners, around 10, suffering with influenza A, which was the strain of influenza prevalent in the community at this time of the year.

Action was taken with anti-virals and isolation in some cases to avoid spread.

The influenza jab was again offered to prisoners who had not taken it.

All cases are being followed up.

PN DEMANDS EXPLANATION

In a statement, the shadow minister for home affairs, Beppe Fenech Adami, said the government needed to explain what was happening at the prisons.  

"Minister Carmelo Abela should stop trying to hide what is really happening at the Corradino Correctional Facility  and immediately inform the people about flu or other infective disease spread among the inmates," Dr Fenech Adami said. 

Yesterday, he said, Mr Abela tried to mislead the media by denying that two prisoners at ITU had suffered an overdose when he knew two inmates were in the ITU suffering the flu or some other illness. It was after opposition questions in Parliament that Parliamentary Secretary Fearne made the first disclosures about the worrying situation.  

The government needed to be clear as its silence was worrying prisoners, staff and their families, Dr Fenech Adami said.  

GOVERNMENT DENIES TRYING TO HIDE SITUATION

In a reply, the Home Affairs Ministry said it was not true that it was hiding information on the prisons.

It said that as soon as an online portal reported yesterday that two prisoners were taken in intensive care as a result of an overdose, a denial was issued in which it was stated that they were taken to hospital for health reasons.

The ministry had also confirmed that the prisoners were being held in intensive care because of respiratory problems and that a number of prisoners were suffering from influenza.

Both prisoners and prison officials were offered the influenza jab in November and the offer was taken up by 109.

The ministry said it was easy for the government to remind the public of state the prisons were left in by the previous administration.

But such matters called for maturity rather than partisanship and allegations, it said.