The Associated Press has reported that three fewer people were sickened by last summer’s Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in San Quentin prison than was previously thought.
According to Joyce Hayhoe, Director of Legislation for California Correctional Healthcare Services, medical experts lowered the number of official cases from 81 to 78 upon closely reviewing the cases.
The San Quentin outbreak has occurred over the months of August and September last year. At that time, 13 inmates were hospitalized at a cost of approximately $202,000 to tax payers; 3 employees were hospitalized as well. Epidemiologists eventually identified the poorly maintained cooling towers in a health services building of the aging prison as the source of the outbreak; when prisoners and employees inhaled the Legionella-laden water mist from the water system, they became ill. Remediation efforts including canceling visits, forbidding hot showers and meals, and bringing in safe water for 1,200 employees and 3,300 inmates.
Besides the San Quentin outbreak, recent cases have occurred at Stateville Correctional Institute in Crest Hill, Illinois (August 2015), at Riker’s Island in New York (August 2015), and at Roxbury Correctional Institute in Hagerstown, Maryland (2013). The physical damage caused by this highly preventable disease can be extensive.
If an inmate is diagnosed with pneumonia, it is vital that they be tested to see if they are in fact suffering from Legionnaires’ disease contracted at the facility.
