Prisoners were undergoing blood-screening tests yesterday as a mass evacuation of Pollsmoor Prison got under way in Cape Town in response to an outbreak of an infectious disease spread by rats. Correctional services officials have tightened security as 4000 inmates will have to be relocated from the overcrowded facility.The disease, known as leptospirosis, has killed two prisoners.story_article_left1Western Cape correctional services spokesman Simphiwe Xako said the outbreak was caused by a plague of rats at the prison, which houses 8000 inmates - twice its capacity.The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union blamed overcrowding and inadequate sanitary facilities for the outbreak."Ablution facilities are minimal and overcrowding has seen many inmates and staff falling victim to diseases associated with such inhumane conditions," said Popcru spokesman Richard Mamabolo yesterday.Pollsmoor, where Nelson Mandela was once held, was the subject of a landmark Constitutional Court ruling nearly three years ago after Cape Town businessman Dudley Lee contracted tuberculosis while awaiting trial.Lee was awarded R270000 in damages because authorities had neglected to guard him against the threat of TB.The remand centre section of Pollsmoor, with about 4000 inmates, has been exposed to the bacterial disease, which causes mild flu-like symptoms including headaches and chills, but can lead to organ failure and bleeding.It is spread through contact with soil or water contaminated with the urine of animals including rodents, dogs, pigs and cattle.story_article_right2Medical staff, with support from Groote Schuur Hospital, were on site yesterday performing blood tests on some of the prisoners, said Xako.He said the evacuation would take between four and six weeks. The inmates were being moved to other prisons around the province, including Helderstroom in Caledon and Goodwood in Cape Town.The evacuation comes weeks after an unrelated, but scathing report by Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron about conditions at the jail.Kerrigan McCarthy, head of the outbreak unit at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said the unit visited the prison on September 2. "The goal was to understand the rodent activity and we found evidence in and around [the prison]."She said they had advised the department to screen all prisoners with nonspecific symptoms like flu.The evacuation presents the risk that potentially dangerous prisoners could escape, but Xako said the department had a plan in place. "We have watertight security and we keep our documentation."Mamabolo said: "Our view is that prisons should not be a death sentence."..