The State - News from July 16, 1986

Some Siskiyou County sheriff’s deputies fear that they may have been exposed to AIDS after an inmate with the fatal disease apparently tried to commit suicide in the county jail. The jail’s isolation and visiting rooms are quarantined because of blood spread around the isolation room after the inmate apparently slashed his wrist with a razor blade. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which destroys the body’s immune system, is spread through blood and other body fluids. Sheriff Bud Taylor said public health officials “still have to see if we contaminated (the isolation) room and what we have to do to decontaminate it.” Meanwhile, deputies who worked directly with the inmate immediately filed for workers’ compensation as a “precautionary” measure, officials said.