Cooling towers blamed for Legionnaires' disease at prison

(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.

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.