WDAM - Channel 7 - Serving Hattiesburg, Laurel and the Pine BeltPrison: 3 Deaths Not Meningitis
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Authorities say autopsies have confirmed the deaths of three inmates from the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville are unrelated and were not caused by meningitis.
Prison officials say seven inmates from the same prison were taken to Singing River Hospital on Sunday because an inmate hospitalized in George County had an odd infection.
After spinal taps to check for meningitis, all seven were cleared and returned to prison.
An eighth inmate from the prison, brought to Singing River Hospital on Monday, had an illness unrelated to the meningitis scare and is still hospitalized in good condition.
Officials say the illness was also not related to the deaths of the three inmates.
Greene County Coroner Clyde Gilley said autopsy results from the state medical examiner show two of the three inmates who died this past week had heart trouble and the third had diabetes and a bleeding ulcer.
Two died at the prison hospital on March seventh and eighth.
