Central Valley Prisons Spend $5M To Test About 90K Inmates for Valley Fever

California is spending more than $5 million to test about 90,000 prison inmates for Valley Fever in an effort to reduce the number of infections this year. The illness -- which is caused by a fungus the grows in the soil in the Central Valley and other dry locations -- infected 197 inmates in 2013, including four cases that contributed to inmates' deaths, and 21 cases through June 2014, with no reported deaths.

• "California Spends $5M To Screen Inmates for Valley Fever" (Thompson, "KPCC News," AP/KPCC, 1/11)