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Fungal Infection Haunts Californian Prisoners
In the past three years, more than 900 inmates at the prison have contracted the fungal infection.
At least a dozen inmates in Central California have died from the disease, which is on the rise in other western states of the US, including Arizona, where the health department declared an epidemic after more than 5,500 cases were reported in 2006, including 33 deaths.
The disease, coccidioidomycosis, is caused by a fungus inhaled by its victims. Researchers say the fungus survives in the surface of soil in a relatively narrow geographic band of the country and in Central and South America, in regions characterized by very hot and dry summers and winters that are mild and have little rainfall.
In most cases, the infection starts in the lungs and is usually handled by the body without permanent damage. But serious complications can arise, including meningitis; and, at Pleasant Valley, the scope of the outbreak has left some inmates permanently disabled, confined to wheelchairs and interned in expensive long-term hospital stays.
About 80 prison employees have also contracted the fever, Pleasant Valley officials say, including a corrections officer who died of the disease in 2005.
What makes the disease all the more troubling is that its cause is literally underfoot: the spores that cause the infection reside in the regions soil. When that soil is disturbed, something that happens regularly where houses are being built, crops are being sown and a steady wind churns, those spores are inhaled. The spores can also be kicked up by Mother Nature including earthquakes and dust storms.
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