Two inmates at a prison in Oxfordshire, England, were tested for the Wuhan coronavirus on Tuesday.

The tests at HMP Bullingdon came after one of the prisoners collapsed in his cell after being transferred there from a Thai jail, and the other reportedly suffered flu-like symptoms, according to Sky News and the Independent.

If the inmates are found with the deadly virus, which is spread between humans, it could become disastrous, prison experts said.

British prisons are overcrowded, unsanitary, and mostly unprepared to deal with disease outbreaks. A quarter of them were built before 1900, and maintain the same washing facilities.

Prisons in the US have also been criticized for failing to meet adequate health and safety standards. Nobody in prisons outside the UK have reported coronavirus cases or potential cases so far.

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Two inmates in a public prison in southern England were tested for the deadly Wuhan coronavirus on Tuesday after a prisoner collapsed in his cell.

The prisoner who collapsed at HMP Bullingdon has been identified as 31-year-old Mark John Rumble, who was transferred from a jail in Thailand two weeks ago, Sky News reported, citing Thai authorities.

He is one of the two inmates being tested, according to the Independent. Both men reportedly suffered flu-like symptoms.

The men are currently being held in isolation in the prison, which has a capacity of 1,114 inmates, Sky News reported. Public Health England, the country’s health authorities, have also arrived to help the situation, the broadcaster said.

If one or both prisoners are found with the coronavirus, the consequences could be disastrous.

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Foto: A man disinfects a woman arriving at a hotel accommodating isolated people in Wuhan, China, on February 3, 2020.sourceFeature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Dr. Jamie Bennett, a UK civil servant and former prison governor, tweeted Tuesday that the risk of the coronavirus spreading in prisons “can’t be eliminated,” but that health authorities are planning measures to minimize that risk.

Prisons have long been criticized for poor sanitation, overcrowding, and a lack of resources – so much so that they “have long been known to present higher risks of contagious disease outbreaks,” Catherine Heard, director of the World Prison Programme at the Institute for Crime & Policy Research, told Business Insider Wednesday.

“Reduced access to fresh air and natural light, cramped living spaces, poor access to medical treatment and screening – these factors speed up the spread of infection and are typical of prison environments,” she said.

Juliet Lyon, then-director of the UK’s Prison Reform Trust, told the Independent in 2015 that UK prison were nothing short of “a health and safety nightmare.”

Heard also warned that if the novel coronavirus took hold and spread in prisons across England and Wales, it could spell disaster. The prison system in those countries is already straining under the record levels of assault and self-harm that happen inside.

“This will make it all the harder for prison staff and health teams to deal with any confirmed case of coronavirus among prisoners,” she said.

Foto: An official uses thermal imaging devices to measure the temperature of passengers arriving from Sanya, China, at Novosibirsk International Airport.sourceKirill KukhmarTASS via Getty Images

‘Overcrowding and lack of personal space’

The Wuhan coronavirus, which has killed more than 1,100 people so far, can be transferred between humans simply by brushing skin.

British prisons, meanwhile, suffer from “overcrowding and lack of personal space,” which increases the risk of “communicable diseases,” according to a 2018 report on prison health published by the UK government, citing the Care Quality Commission in England.

In a three-bed cell at HMP Belmarsh, in southeast England, “there was little room to move; if all three men were standing up there was not enough space for them to pass each other without touching,” the report also said.

About 20,000 inmates – or 25% of the total prison population in the UK – live in overcrowded conditions, the Prison Reform Trust told the BBC in 2018.

Foto: Security officers around HMP Belmarsh, southeast London, in October 2001.sourceREUTERS/Russell Boyce RUS/PS

Bad sanitation, no hot water, and ‘dirty protests’

The 2018 government report cited one inmate who was interned in the UK as saying that “living conditions in prison are very poor. Sanitation and hot water are often unavailable and the ever-growing population of rats running around the communal areas are an ongoing risk of disease.”

Another prisoner told the researchers that one prison “had no hot water for five months.”

This would not help prevent the coronavirus from spreading. In recent guidelines on how to prevent the coronavirus, England’s National Health Service focused on washing hands to kill bacteria, adding that cold water is not as effective as hot water.

Foto: An aerial view of HMP Bullingdon.sourceGoogle Maps

One in four UK prisons were built before 1900 and still have the same “inadequate” washing facilities, according to the government report.

“Too many prisoners remain in unsafe, unsanitary and outdated establishments,” the researchers said.

The spreading of excrement and urine on prison floors and walls is also a common tactic of inmates.

These “dirty protests” mean prisoners are “exposed to traumatic or unsanitary conditions involving blood, vomit and other bodily fluids, introducing a severe health risk,” according to CleanSafe, an industrial cleaning firm working with prisons in Britain.

Foto: Medical staff in protective suits assist passengers disembarking from a plane from Wuhan at RAF Brize Norton on February 9, 2020.sourceLeon Neal/Getty Images

American prisons are almost just as bad

Prisons in the US and around the world have also been criticized for failing to meet adequate health and safety standards.

A 2016 paper from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published in The Lancet, found a “failure to ensure humane prison conditions” in US prisons, which constituted a “violation of human rights.”

The issue of disease spreading in prisons worldwide is worse because many inmates are from poor and minority groups, according to Penal Reform International.

“Many of the factors that make these groups more likely to be incarcerated, including poverty and discrimination, also mean that they tend to carry a disproportionately high burden of disease and ill-health,” Penal Reform International said.

Due to poor hygiene in prison kitchens, US prisoners are six times more likely to get a foodborne illness than the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The World Health Organization has also said that in general, prisons around the world suffer from “overcrowding, poor ventilation, frequent transfers of prisoners between prisons, poor nutrition, and limited access to health care.”

Only the UK has reported testing inmates for coronavirus so far.

Foto: Health workers in protective gear evacuate residents from a public-housing building in Hong Kong.sourceTyrone Siu/Reuters

Prisons already run the risk of other viruses

Public Health England noted in its 2019/2020 “Seasonal flu guidance” that British prisons “run the risk of significant and potentially serious outbreaks” of the common flu, “with large numbers of cases and a higher rate of complications, including mortality.”

The health authority said that prisons are likely bad places for outbreaks because:

A large numbers of people live in close proximity with high degrees of social mixing during activities.

The prison population is constantly turning over with new receptions, releases and transfers.

Access to healthcare could be limited if demand is high, and transferring prisoners out to hospitals is complicated due to staffing issues.

Prisoners tend to have more respiratory illnesses, including asthma.

Prisons across western Europe are already breeding grounds for tuberculosis, according to the World Health Organization, where the rate of infection is 11 times higher than for those outside.