TY - JOUR AU - Wheeler, Charlotte AU - Lucas, Kimberley AU - Mohle-Boetani, Janet T1 - Rates and Risk Factors for Coccidioidomycosis among Prison Inmates, California, USA, 2011 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2015 VL - 21 IS - 1 SP - 70 SN - 1080-6059 AB - In California, coccidioidomycosis is a disease acquired by inhaling spores of Coccidioides immitis, a fungus found in certain arid regions, including the San Joaquin Valley, California, USA, where 8 state prisons are located. During 2011, we reviewed coccidioidomycosis rates at 2 of the prisons that consistently report >80% of California’s inmate cases and determined inmate risk factors for primary, severe (defined as pulmonary coccidioidomycosis requiring >10 hospital days), and disseminated coccidioidomycosis (defined by hospital discharge International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision code). Inmates of African American ethnicity who were >40 years of age were at significantly higher risk for primary coccidioidomycosis than their white counterparts (odds ratio = 2.0, 95% CI 1.5–2.8). Diabetes was a risk factor for severe pulmonary coccidioidomycosis, and black race a risk factor for disseminated disease. These findings contributed to a court decision mandating exclusion of black inmates and inmates with diabetes from the 2 California prisons with the highest rates of coccidioidomycosis. KW - African American KW - black KW - coccidioides KW - coccidioidomycosis KW - diabetes mellitus KW - Hispanic American KW - lung diseases KW - fungal epidemiology KW - mycoses KW - fungus KW - prisons KW - prisoners KW - inmates KW - valley fever KW - white KW - race KW - ethnicity KW - cocci KW - California KW - USA DO - 10.3201/eid2101.140836 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/1/14-0836_article ER - End of Reference