An inmate at a western Maryland prison has been treated at a hospital for Legionnaires' disease, prison officials said.
Water is being tested at the Roxbury Correctional Institution for the bacterium that causes the disease, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said. It grows in water, including air-conditioning ducts, storage tanks and rivers.
State prisons spokesman Mark Vernarelli told The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown that it's believed the inmate contracted the disease inside the prison. The inmate was treated at a hospital for Legionnaires' pneumonia and is now at a prison infirmary.
No other inmates are known to have been infected, Vernarelli said.
Legionnaires' bacteria were previously found in the water at Roxbury in 2006.
