Infection hits California prison system

The prisons in California have problems. Overcrowding, violence, and spiraling costs, to name a few. Now the NY Times has published an article about the valley fever epidemic in the Central Valley prisons.

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 region’s 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.

Does that sound like a lawsuit waiting to happen to anyone else?

btw, I just love this professional and helpful advice from Coalinga's mayor:

“We just deal,” said Trish Hill, the city’s mayor. “You don’t do stupid things like go out on windy days or dig in the dirt.”

In other words, if you get sick, it's your own damn fault, stupid.