Prosecutors on Thursday admitted 61 detainees of the Haram police station to a special Central Security quarantine in 6th of October City after they reportedly contracted a contagious disease.
Authorities also ordered a health committee to sterilize the facility from any bacteria, quaratine the rest of the detainees and test for further infections.
Detainees complained of swelling of the limbs, ulcers, bleeding, itchy skin and fever.
The disease appeared on Tuesday affecting six inmates after a newcomer, who was the first to display symptoms, was detained in a drug case and spread the infection to the rest of the detainees the following day.
Prosecutors are awaiting reports from the Faculty of Medicine about the nature of the disease so as to complete investigations.
Previous investigations have revealed multiple police stations in Egypt suffer from massive overcrowding and poor health conditions for detainees. Many jail cells often hold three times the amount of people they were built for, allowing disease to spread much quicker and easier.
Egypt's jail conditions have been under fire since the ouster of Mohamed Morsy, when the new military-supported government began to arrest protesters en masse and stuff jails with political dissidents.
The Telegraph previously published an undercover video in March documenting the poor conditions in a jail, though Interior Ministry officials quickly accused the video of being fake.
Egypt Independent spoke to Hossam Meneai, a former detainee who was held for 20 days in the Dokki police station for "spreading false news". Meneai attested to the overcrowding and poor health conditions, saying the air of his small cell was humid and suffocating as he shared it with 25 to 30 men.
Meneai's cell only had two small windows, which did not bring in fresh air in as the fans were broken and many of the detainees smoked throughout the day. Like many other detainees, after finally being freed from the jail, he suffered from respiratory problems for weeks.
The Interior Ministry has frequently denied accusations by activists and human rights groups about the poor conditions. Abdel Fattah Othman, the Interior Ministry's Deputy for Information Affairs, was criticized for his appearance on the privately-owned channel ONTV on 1 July, where he brushed off accusations, claiming that Egypt's prisons “have become hotels.”
