Inmates ordered out of two California prisons after Valley Fever outbreak, deaths

April 29, 2013

Thousands of inmates at two California prisons may be removed from their current facility to protect them from Valley Fever.

Federal medical receiver J. Clark Kelso is in charge of improving health care at California prisons. On Monday Kelso ordered the state corrections department to get inmates more susceptible to Valley Fever out of two prisons in the Central Valley area of California.

Valley Fever is a fungal infection that causes flu-like symptoms and in serious cases can kill. It has been spreading quickly through the Avenal and Pleasant Valley Prisons of late and has been blamed for dozens of deaths.

Dr. John Galgiani of Arizona’s Valley Fever Center told a judge in a sworn statement that conditions at the two facilities constitute a "public health emergency."

The removal order affects more than 3,000 inmates.