LEWISTON – A group of county jail inmates have been isolated after one of them was diagnosed with a highly contagious infection known to resist antibiotic treatments.

An Androscoggin County Jail official said one inmate was diagnosed with MRSA, a bacteria that caused the death of an inmate in Bangor last year.

Six other inmates were isolated because they were believed to have been in contact with him.

“There’s no indication they have contracted anything. We needed to isolate them to make sure they don’t come down with this,” said Capt. John Lebel, the jail administrator. “It’s precautionary at this point.”

The staph infection is generally spread through direct contact, not through the air, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

No personal information was provided about the inmate who has MRSA, which stands for methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus. Lebel said the man did not require hospital care and was being treated by medical service providers at the jail.

The infection came to the attention of jail officials on Thursday. Workers wearing biohazard suits spent part of the day disinfecting a cell block where the infected inmate had been housed.

Lebel said normal activities were halted at the jail as prisoners were isolated and workers continued cleaning cells. No immediate problems were reported as a result of the situation, though Lebel said some inmates were angry and confused about the disruption.

“We’ve stopped movement in here. It’s caused some frustration,” the captain said. “They see people walking around in contamination suits, and they automatically panic.”

Jail officials are especially concerned about the staph infection’s tendency to cause more serious afflictions, such as pneumonia.

In December, a 22-year-old inmate at the Penobscot County Jail died one day after he was diagnosed with MRSA. Medical officials said Jason Shank died of pneumonia after coming down with the staph infection.

Around the same time, a flu outbreak at that lockup forced jail administrators to delay the sentences of nearly two dozen people scheduled to be imprisoned there. The outbreak also forced the cancellation of visits at the jail, including those scheduled for Christmas Day.

In Auburn, Lebel said extra precautions were being taken at the jail out of fear of a similar outbreak there.

“It’s especially of concern for us with the influenza vaccine not available to us,” he said.

Elsewhere, physicians in Ireland also are battling an outbreak of MRSA in hospitals. In Canada, a cluster of outbreaks has been reported in Calgary and at least one person has died from complications of the infection.

In that Canadian city, most cases of the infection were found in drug treatment shelters, jails and homeless shelters, according to news reports.

Staph bacteria can spawn different kinds of illnesses, including skin infections, bone infections, pneumonia, severe life-threatening bloodstream infections and others, according to the Centers for Disease Control.