Hunt continues for source of Legionnaires’ outbreak

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An environmental consultant has been brought into the hunt for the source of Legionnaires’ disease at San Quentin state prison in California. After six days of testing, officials still do not know what caused the outbreak, which has left more than 100 inmates sick and the historic prison in near-lockdown.

Showers and drinking water have been shut off since a prisoner was diagnosed with the severe illness Aug. 27. Prison officials said they are consulting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention daily and the state health department.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 96 prisoners showed symptoms of infection, and seven inmates had been hospitalized, but corrections and prison health officials said only six yet tested positive for the bacterium that causes Legionnaires’ disease. They said X-rays show 50 of the prisoners who are sick have some form of pneumonia.

The medical office that runs prison health care expects the caseload to grow.

“We’re still within the 10-day incubation period for Legionnaires’,” said Joyce Hayhoe, spokeswoman for California Correctional Health Care Services. “After 10 days, we may see the spike,” she said, referring to the point at which new cases should stop.

Because Legionnaires’ is caused by a water-borne bacterium, the state cannot resume full water service within the prison until the source of the infection is found, Hayhoe said.

At first, San Quentin shut off not only water for drinking but also for cooking, showers and toilets.

By Friday the toilets were operable again, but because of concern of steam from heating food, the 3,700 inmates at San Quentin were put on a breakfast-lunch-dinner diet of peanut butter sandwiches.

Water trucks on some prison yards have allowed inmates to bathe. That is not the case for those on death row, where 730 inmates have not had a shower for more than a week.