WZTV FOX 17/Nashville

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FL - Visitation has been cut off at the Escambia County Jail amidst an outbreak of a flu-like illness.

Administration officials aren't sure what the disease is but says it could be either whooping cough or swine flu.

Channel Three's Dan Thomas joins us now live from the county jail with the latest. Dan?

This is where the problem started here at central booking. Every inmate goes through here before being assigned to a cell.

And this is where the problem started and, at least so far, it's been contained to this building.

That being said, it appears to be a fast-moving illness: Tuesday there was one person sick, and Wednesday there were about 40.

Theresa Williams has been a detention officer for about 5 years.

Theresa Williams/Escambia Detention Officer: "I love it, I love helping people."

She says the jail really isn't all that different than any other home.

Theresa Williams/Escambia Detention Officer: "If you're sick we're going to move you out of the way so everyone don't get sick. Just like you would have you stay in the room... we'll bring the soup and stuff to you. But stay in there, we don't want it."

What they have is a mysterious outbreak that sprung up in less than a day.

Ted Roy/Escambia Sheriff's Spokesman: "We're taking it seriously because you know our jail population, we have one of the largest jails in the state of Florida and the last thing we need is 9 hundred to a thousand inmates sick with the swine flu, so nip it in the bud right off the bat."

To do that, they've put 40 people hit by the possible outbreak of H1N1, or swine flu, in isolation.

They've sent samples to the Centers for Disease Control to find out for sure what it is, and masks are available, but wearing them is optional.

Dan Thomas/Reporter: "It seems none of the employees around here are really in much of a panic about the situation, in fact they've already taken several precautions, long before anyone ever even heard of the H1N1 virus, including these hand sanitizers which are mounted all over the jail."

Williams says she'll be using the hand sanitizer but won't be wearing a mask.

Dan Thomas/Reporter: "So on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being not worried and 10 being panicked, where are you right now?"

Theresa Williams/Escambia Detention Officer: "2, cause I don't know what it is, once I find out what it is then I could probably give you a different number."

They expected to have those sample results back Thursday morning.

Reporting live at the Escambia County Jail, Dan Thomas, Channel Three News.