Northern Territory Correctional Services has issued a cautionary advice to women who are in the first trimester of pregnancy to consider deferring visits to the Darwin and Alice Springs correctional centres.

Commissioner Mark Payne said two prisoners in Darwin and three in Alice Springs had recently been confirmed as having contracted the mumps virus.

“The health teams at both correctional centres are closely monitoring the prisoner population and have isolated those who have been infected,” he said.

“Widespread immunisation has made mumps an uncommon illness in Australia but it does crop up from time to time.”

Commission Payne stressed that no visitors have been affected. 

“It’s five prisoners in a population of 1548 but we have a duty of care to visitors to make them aware of any health issues that we are experiencing,” he said.

For further information please contact:

The Centre for Disease Control at Royal Darwin Hospital on (08) 8922 8044

The Centre for Disease Control at Alice Springs Hospital on (08) 8951 0357

 Media contact: David Harris 0400 342 389