Three months prior to the death of the medical director at State Correctional Institution – Pittsburgh, Legionella bacteria was detected in the cooling tower that served the prison facility, according to an article on the Becker's Infection Control and Clinical Quality website.
Employees weren't notified about the contamination issue until a month later.
Documents from three months before the director's death indicate that samples from the No. 1 water cooling tower, which served the prison's medical department, tested positive for 430 colony forming units per milliliter of Legionella bacteria.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration advises any cooling tower water with a concentration of 100 cfu/ml or more undergo a cleaning and biocide treatment.
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