Inmates’ time in San Quentin State Prison just got a little harder: The prison’s water has been turned off, and porta-potties have been brought in, because of a case of Legionnaires’ disease.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which runs the well-known prison, announced Friday that the water in the facility has been shut off indefinitely after an inmate was diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease. The number of cases may grow.
“There are several other inmates exhibiting symptoms but are still being tested to confirm,” the state agency said.
San Quentin is one of the United States’ most famous prisons, not just because of singer Johnny Cash’s 1958 visit there but because of the hard-core criminals who have called it home. The prison houses over 4,200 inmates, which is more than 1,000 over its designed capacity, including about 700 on death row, according to the CDCR.
While it’s not known if more than one current inmate has Legionnaires’, many more inmates will be affected and in a lot of ways.
There will be no more showering or “any other activities that create steam, such as kitchen operations,” per orders from the Marin County Public Health Department.
Water is being brought in from outside, as are porta-potties for the inmates’ use, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
These steps will be in place as long as the water is shut off, which the CDCR said will be “until the cause of the exposure is discovered.”
On heels of deadly Legionnaires’ outbreak in New York
The reason prison and health authorities are focused on steam and mist is because those are two of the main ways people are exposed to the Legionella bacteria, thus the corresponding disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While it got its name from a 1976 outbreak at a Philadelphia convention for the American Legion, Legionnaires’ is hardly a new disease. Nor is it particularly rare, with the CDC estimating 8,000 to 18,000 hospitalized cases each year in the United States.
It doesn’t spread from person-to-person but rather through the air, with those getting it typically coming down with a fever, chills and a cough. Most recover, but 5% to 30% of those who get the disease die, according to the CDC.
This summer, 12 people in the South Bronx died and more than 115 people were hospitalized after contracting Legionnaires’ disease, according to the New York City heath department. All the dead were adults with underlying medical conditions.
Laboratory tests subsequently traced the outbreak to bacteria found in a cooling tower in the Opera House Hotel that matched the strain found in patients.
An outbreak of the disease killed two people at a hotel in downtown Chicago in 2012.