According to the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced yesterday that a recent guest of the Plim Plaza Hotel had died from Legionnaires’ disease. Media sources report that legionella bacteria was discovered in several water samples taken from the hotel last week, when Maryland’s health department announced that three guests of the Plim Plaza Hotel had been sickened with Legionnaires’ disease; the department confirmed three additional cases yesterday.
The Plim Plaza Hotel in Ocean City, Maryland has closed three days before the end of the season after three former guests were hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease. All three guests were over 50 and suffering from weakened immune systems, rendering them particularly vulnerable to Legionnaires’ disease. Guests currently staying at the hotel were “voluntarily relocated,” according to the Baltimore Sun.
Tests of the water system are currently underway by officials of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; the hotel has also hired an outside firm to conduct testing. Preliminary results have shown legionella bacteria in the water, but official results will not be available until next week.
The hotel is allegedly contacting guests who stayed there in the past month to warn them about potential exposure to the legionella bacteria. One former guest commented that he and his elderly mother had stayed there from September 26 to 30, 2011 and that he had not yet heard from the hotel. During his stay he had noticed officials conducting tests on the hotel’s three hot tubs, but concluded at the time that they were performing standard maintenance.
The Maryland Department of Mental Health and Hygiene encourages anyone who stayed at the Plim Plaza Hotel on or after September 1, 2011 to contact their health provider if they develop symptoms.
Jules Zacher represented six former guests of an Ocean City hotel, the Princess Royale, in 2004, and argued that the hotel posed a danger to guests by not properly maintaining its water system. Tests revealed the presence of legionella bacteria in the shower heads and faucets in the victims’ rooms, and several other locations throughout the hotel were determined to be conducive for the growth of the bacteria. More recently, Mr. Zacher settled a case involving a Legionnaires’ disease victim from Canada who was infected and became severely ill due to poorly maintained hot tubs at a hotel in Orlando, Florida.
According to media reports, a third case of Legionnaires’ disease has been diagnosed at Hamilton Hills Personal Care Home in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, bringing the total amount of cases in Turtle Creek to eleven. The other eight cases were diagnosed at the nearby LGAR Health and Rehabilitation Center. Both facilities, which are retirement homes, have switched to bottled water, and LGAR has installed a copper-silver ionization system to control legionella growth in its water system. Hamilton Hills is considering the installation of such a system.
Sep 222011
According to media reports, two cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been diagnosed within the past week at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. One of the victims is a graduate student in the School of Film at Ohio University and the other lives outside of Athens County. Investigators are currently attempting to identify possible sources of the bacterium. Legionnaires’ disease has an incubation period of 2 to 14 days, so if the victims were in fact sickened by the same source, they must have visited the same area with the last two weeks. Updates will be made when they become available.
News broke last week that 8 cases of Legionnaires’ disease had been confirmed at the LGAR Health and Rehabilitation Center in Turtle Creek, just outside of Pittsburgh. Now, according to news reports, officials from the Allegheny County Health Department are investigating two more cases of Legionnaires’ disease at the nearby Hamilton Hills Personal Care Home. So far, three people have been hospitalized. The health department, according to its director, is looking into the domestic water supply of the facilities as a potential source of the outbreak. Disinfection of the water system at LGAR Health and Rehab is currently underway.
Officials of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City are warning patients and staff against using the showers and faucets after a test of the facility’s water system revealed the presence of legionella bacteria. Results came back on September 16, 2011.
One patient tested positive for the disease on September 15, 2011, the day before legionella was found in the water. The director of infection control at the hospital said that the Center is working with city and state health officials to determine whether the patient acquired Legionnaires’ disease before or after being admitted to the hospital. So far, no other patients have tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease.
As a precaution, the usage of tap water for drinking and bathing has been suspended, and the hospital is providing bottled water for drinking and pre-moistened towelettes for bathing. There is no word at this point of disinfection efforts undertaken by the hospital.
According to media reports, eight residents of the LGAR Health and Rehabilitation Center in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Pittsburgh) have contracted Legionnaires’ disease. The director of the Allegheny County Health Department said he did not know what caused growth of Legionella bacteria in the center’s water system. Remediation efforts include using bottled water instead of tap water. Updates will be provided when they become available.
In a similar case, Jules Zacher, Esquire is currently representing a woman who contracted Legionnaires’ disease during her stay in a Cleveland nursing home.
The Southern Nevada Health District has compiled an interim report on the outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The interim report outlines the investigative and remediation efforts undertaken at the Aria during the months of June and July, 2011. The conclusions reached by the Southern Nevada Health District in conjunction with the CDC were as follows:
- All six patients reported to the CDC who had stayed at the Aria during the incubation period of Legionnaires’ disease were laboratory confirmed through urine testing and had the same serogroup, LP1, the same serogroup found in the water at the Aria hotel;
- The identification of 6 associated cases is very unusual and indicative of an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at the Aria;
- The most likely source of exposure was showering by the guests;
- The identification of these cases and the water sample results indicate a systemic contamination problem throughout the hotel water system, and a comprehensive water management and remediation program will be needed to disinfect the system and maintain disinfection on an ongoing basis.
The entire interim report can be read here.
According to news reports, five cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been confirmed in workers of a shredding facility in Owego, New York. The cases stretch back to 2009.
Again according to news reports, the owner of the facility was originally unaware that his workers were ill with Legionnaires’ disease, mistaking its first appearance for the flu. Once more workers fell ill he contacted officials from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), who conducted an on-site inspection on June 1 and 2, 2011. At this time, officials took note of several pools of standing water around the facility (stagnant water is an ideal breeding ground for legionella bacteria). Water samples were taken from the pools and tests revealed the presence of legionella.
Legionella bacteria were also found in water dripping from the shredder, which, according to the owner, was 15 years old, so “the water could have been sitting in there for a very long time.” A report prepared by NIOSH showed that those who tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease worked in or around standing water and/or with a moving conveyor in the picking facility, where legionella were also found.
NIOSH has made several recommendations for reducing the threat of legionella at the facility, including:
- that all standing water be eliminated;
- that workers wear protective respirators;
- that conveyors be disinfected with chlorine.
The owner of the facility began working to implement these recommendations following the last confirmed case of Legionnaires’ disease in mid-July.
Aug 182011
According to health officials, St. Ann’s Community in Rochester, New York is supplying bottled water to its residents after the New York Department of Health found legionella bacteria in its water system. The state is reviewing bacterial control methods employed by the nursing home, and has encouraged St. Ann’s to add special, bacteria-trapping filters to the shower heads in residents’ rooms. So far, one resident has contracted and recovered from Legionnaires’ disease. It is not yet clear whether the legionella found in the nursing home was the source of his illness. No other cases have been confirmed.
