Cooling Towers Blamed For Legionnaires' Disease At San Quentin

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Dirty cooling towers were to blame for an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that has sickened dozens of inmates and at least four employees at San Quentin State Prison since late August, according to a report Thursday.

Tests showed two of the towers on the roof of the prison's Central Health Services Building had high concentrations of the bacterium that causes the disease, according to the federal receiver who controls inmate medical care. The report says people walking near the towers evidently inhaled contaminated mist, because no drinking water was affected.

The same report also found that nearly 90 percent of inmates at the epicenter of the state's valley fever epidemic are refusing to be tested for exposure to that disease, which is caused by a soil-borne fungus.

Receiver J. Clark Kelso blamed a buildup of sludge in the cooling tower water pans, as well as a heat wave in the San Francisco Bay Area, for the Legionnaires' disease outbreak that sickened 81 inmates and sent 13 of them to outside hospitals. Twelve employees are still being tested.

The towers have since been cleaned and the 163-year-old prison north of San Francisco is back to normal.

For a time, the outbreak caused the state's oldest prison to cancel visits, hot meals and showers, and haul in water and portable toilets for the more than 3,300 inmates and 1,200 employees.

Legionnaires' disease is considered a severe type of pneumonia that can bring high fever, chills and a cough. It occurs when contaminated water is inhaled into the lungs in the form of steam, mist or moisture. A recent outbreak that sickened 128 people and killed 12 in New York City was similarly traced to a Bronx hotel's rooftop air conditioning unit.

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