By Charley Gillespie
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The state prison system began checking every inmate and doing a top-to-bottom cleaning of the Pickaway Correctional Institution on Friday after one inmate died of a blood infection and 72 others reported having skin lesions like those of the dead inmate.

Sean Schwamberger, 19, died Tuesday at Ohio State University Medical Center, where he'd been sent April 20 after passing out in the prison exercise yard.

Schwamberger's family has said they were told his infection may have come from a spider bite or something else, but Franklin County Coroner Brad Lewis said Friday that the lesions were the result of a staph infection. "It's clear that spider bites could not have been causing these cases," Lewis said.

Prison health officials examined each of the prison's more than 2,100 inmates on Friday and found an additional 37 inmates with skin lesions, bringing the total to 72, said Andrea Dean, spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

One inmate was hospitalized at OSU Medical Center and four others were kept in the prison's medical ward, she said.

Dean said 14 of the 72 infected since March 4 had fresh tattoos.

"Staph infections are not uncommon and the problem is being exacerbated because of homemade tattooing," Dean said. Lewis said Schwamberger had a tattoo in progress on his arm, where the staph infection probably entered.

Prison officials are awaiting lab results taken from inmates to see whether all are suffering from the same illness. Ohio Department of Health spokesman Jay Carey said it could take about a week to get the results.