San Quentin monitoring inmates as hantavirus probe continues

hantavirus case – California corrections officials are waiting on lab test results after an inmate at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center developed symptoms tied to hantavirus, a rare but deadly lung disease. The facility has been decontaminated and both inmates and staff are bei

The first sign that something might be wrong came with symptoms in an inmate at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in Marin County. Now, California corrections officials are holding their breath while lab testing runs its course.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is “waiting for more lab test results for an inmate with symptoms,” Kyle Buis, a spokesperson for the California Correctional Health Care Services, told The Mercury News on Thursday.

San Quentin officials have not publicly confirmed what the symptoms are or what kind of hantavirus they may be linked to. The Times reached out to the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center but did not receive a response before publication.

In the meantime, the prison has taken precautionary steps. Officials have decontaminated the facility’s inmate housing, and medical staff are monitoring prisoners and staff for possible symptoms.

San Quentin is built to hold more than 3,000 individuals and currently houses low- and medium-security inmates, according to the CDCR. A potential case inside a facility of that size forces the same hard question that comes with every rare disease scare: how much risk is already out there before results arrive?.

Hantavirus is uncommon, but it is not harmless. The disease attacks the lungs. and it typically spreads when people inhale particles contaminated with the urine. feces or saliva of wild rodents. The Andes virus is a strain of hantavirus that has recently been in the public eye—after being spread on a Dutch cruise ship. where five California residents were exposed and three people died. Unlike many hantaviruses, the Andes virus is spread from human to human.

Across the United States, the CDC data cited in reporting show how rare hantavirus disease is overall: 890 laboratory-confirmed cases reported since surveillance began in 1993.

Still, rarity doesn’t mean certainty. Dr. Afif El-Hasan, a member of the American Lung Assn.’s national board of directors, said the disease is “probably underdiagnosed” because its symptoms can look like the flu or other illnesses.

“That being said, it’s probably underdiagnosed because the symptoms are a lot like the flu or other illness,” El-Hasan said. “And a lot of people may have passed away or had hantavirus, but it was never diagnosed.”

There is no vaccine or specific antiviral medicine for hantavirus. Treatment in intensive care may include intubation and oxygen therapy, fluid replacement, and medications to lower blood pressure, according to the American Lung Assn.

The timing of this investigation also lands in a world where people have seen how quickly hantavirus can become fatal. Last year, actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their New Mexico home. Authorities determined that Arakawa had died by complications caused by the hantavirus, with evidence of rodents on the property.

In San Quentin. the immediate facts are narrower: an inmate with symptoms. decontamination of inmate housing. and monitoring of both prisoners and staff while officials wait for lab results. The larger stakes sit in what doctors say is often the hidden danger with hantavirus—how easily it can be mistaken for something more common before a diagnosis ever gets made.

San Quentin hantavirus California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation CDCR Marin County inmate symptoms decontamination American Lung Association Kyle Buis CDC