The Need for Public Health Involvement in Prisons: from Pandemic to Pontiac Fever

Yesterday the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) issued a statement about a joint investigation of two cases of Legionnaires’ disease at the Pontiac Correctional Center. The Departments note that “IDPH infectious disease staff are working with the facility to collect information and further investigate the illnesses while environmental health staff are conducting a water quality assessment” and that “the facility receives its water from the City of Pontiac and will begin a water quality testing program through an outside laboratory to monitor water quality data on an ongoing basis.”  It is important that these steps be taken to stem the spread of disease inside the prison and in the community; however the implication that such proactive precautions and basic protections were not in place to identify and rectify the proliferation of the bacteria in the water and/or air supply prior to evidence of serious illness is profoundly disturbing.