Water service at California's San Quentin State Prison has been shut off after one inmate was diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease and dozens of others showed symptoms of the severe form of pneumonia.
California corrections officials said the first case was identified Thursday by doctors at an outside hospital. The stricken inmate remains under treatment. His current condition was not known, said prisons spokeswoman Dana Simas.
"There are currently less than a couple dozen inmates exhibiting symptoms," Simas said Friday. Those prisoners are being tested at outside hospitals to confirm the cause of their illness, she said.
In the meantime, she said, the prison at San Quentin has shut off water within its housing units until the cause of the disease is found.