Legionnaires’ disease sends California inmate to hospital

Corrections department spokeswoman Dana Simas said Friday that at least 16 other San Quentin State Prison inmates are in outside hospitals with symptoms of the disease, which is considered a severe type of pneumonia. Symptoms normally include high temperature, coughing, chills and muscle tissues cramps.

Officials said that at least one prisoner had undergone tests that confirmed the potentially life threatening disease. (The source was later traced to the hotel’s air conditioning system.) This year, two outbreaks in the Bronx left 12 people dead, although New York City health officials recently declared the outbreak over. All water was shut off yesterday afternoon because the disease is transmitted through mist or vapor.

Legionnaires’ disease, acute kind of pneumonia, is the result of inhalation of spritz even with the pathogen Legionella. In the meantime, the prison is choosing water from supplementary resource, she replied, …

No employees have been sickened.

The Los Angeles Times notes that San Quentin now has more than 3,700 inmates in a facility created to hold about 3,000.

“I think that us and the Marin County Public Health Department are responding quickly and appropriately to the incident and hope to resume normal operating procedures as soon as we are able to”, Simas said. They also said the disease is not spread from person to person.

“Their emergency response planning at the prison seems to have paid off very well”, Dr. Bob Benjamin, Marin County’s deputy public health officer, said through a spokesman.