Sky News reports that once the cases became known, guests were moved to a nearby hotel. Though in preliminary findings there were no traces of legionella found, the hotel’s plumbing underwent a sanitation process after guests vacated. It is yet to be determined whether more hotel guests have been affected. Updates will be posted as soon as they become available.

For more information, please reference the site below:

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16161194

According to the Cyprus Mail, all infants were born in Hippocrateon Hospital between December 19, 2008 and December 22, 2008, and were later admitted to the intensive care unit of a different hospital. The nursery ward was closed on December 29, 2008 when it was found that all infants had Legionnaires’. Legionella bacteria were found in a humidifier in the Hippocrateon newborns’ unit, as well as in parts of the hospital’s water distribution system.

The other three doctors are expected to plead to the charges on March 3. The hearing date is set for May 7. Updates of this case will follow as they become available.

For additional information, please reference the links below:

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/legionnaires/legionnaires-doctor-pleads-not-guilty/20120120

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/legionnaires/doctors-court-legionnaires-baby-deaths/20120110

Based on this report, the Health District initiated an epidemiological and environmental investigation in December 2011. The water samples tested positive for Legionella bacteria. The hotel began a remediation process including superheating and super-chlorination of the water system.

The first two cases were reported in spring 2011 and non-fatal. Following the spring 2011 report, the health district tested water samples from the hotel however, no Legionella bacteria was detected.

To date, no additional cases of disease have been reported. Updates will follow as they become available.

Jules Zacher, PC currently represents 31 plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit against Aria Resort & Casino stemming from six reported cases of Legionnaires’ disease in July 2011 from guests who stayed there. Aria Resort & Casino is part of the CityCenter complex that is half-owned by MGM Resorts.

Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nv-health-officials-bacteria-found-in-luxor-water-after-guest-dies-of-legionnaires-disease/2012/01/30/gIQAKchmcQ_story.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/legionnaires-disease-luxor-las-vegas-pneumonia_n_1242539.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/jan/30/guest-who-stayed-luxor-dies-legionnaires-disease/

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/16632205/breaking-news-three-luxor-guests-diagnosed-with-legionnaires-disease

http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2012/01/legionella-found-in-water-at-las-vegas-resort.aspx

The authorities in Spain are investigating the hotel site and surrounding area. The European Legionnaires’ Disease Surveillance Network has been notified of these cases.

Currently, there are sixteen possible cases being investigated. Updates will follow as they become available.

Sources:

https://www.cas.dh.gov.uk/ViewandAcknowledgment/ViewAlert.aspx?AlertID=101722

An “unacceptable” level of legionella was found during routine checks of the water supply on January 9, 2012. However, Health and Social Services asserts that there is “minimal risk” to patients and staff, and there are currently no reports of the illness. Currently, steps are being taken to decontaminate the water supply by flushing chlorinated water through the hospital’s pipe-work. One cleansing took place on Sunday, January 15^th, and another cleansing will take place on January 22^nd, BBC News reports.

For more information, please reference the articles below:

http://www.thisisguernsey.com/news/2012/01/10/legionnaires-bug-found-in-water-supply-at-peh/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-16546584

Northern Health officials in British Columbia are currently conducting an investigation to determine the source of illness, the Toronto Sun reports.

For more information:

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/01/10/legionnaires-may-have-been-contracted-in-bc

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Edmonton+remains+coma+after+contracting+legionnaires+disease/5971002/story.html

In 2010, within a four-week period, eight people contracted the disease after passing directly through the lobby – the location of the water fountain- at the Aurora St. Luke South Shore Hospital in Cudahy, Wisconsin. None of them had been admitted at the time of exposure – three were outpatients, three were picking up medication at the hospital pharmacy, one was a delivery man, and one man was waiting to pick up his wife. All eight possessed preexisting medical conditions or other factors that increased their risks of contracting Legionnaire’s disease.

The disease spread through inhalation contact with the contaminated water. According to Thomas Haupt, a respiratory disease epidemiologist for the Wisconsin Division of Public Health and the lead author of the study, a sampling of a 3-inch by 4-inch piece of foam from the fountain was found to have more than 1 million bacteria.

When the fountain was first suspected as a potential source of the outbreak, the water wall was shut down and turned into a planter. Several other Wisconsin hospitals also shut down or removed  their decorative water walls. All eight patients have since recovered, and no additional cases were reported after the fountain was closed.

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Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/hospital-fountain-linked-to-legionnaires-outbreak/2012/01/10/gIQAyLwEpP_story.html

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/11/145056854/study-links-hospital-water-wall-legionnaires-disease

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/hospital-fountain-linked-disease-outbreak-wisconsin/story?id=15339838

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/outbreak-of-legionnaires-disease-traced-to-hospital-fountain-1.3445365

The VI Department of Health is working with the Centers for Disease Control to coordinate disinfection of the hotels’ water systems; a consultant has also been retained to oversee cleaning and treatment.

The health department also set a deadline for the resorts to notify guests of the risk of exposure to legionella, which was apparently not met.  A statement issued by the resort did not address guest notification, and a general manager contacted by the Virgin Islands Daily News declined to comment.

Testing was performed by the CDC from October 18 to 22, and on November 3, the VI Department of Health relayed the test results to the hotels and instructed management to enact a comprehensive water treatment plan that includes superheating and chlorination.  Test results so far apparently do not indicate a presence of legionella bacteria in the hotels’ water systems, but the CDC has yet to review these results, according to the article.

The health department alerted the public of the ongoing remediation efforts this past Monday, December 12, 2011.

“Major renovation” was completed at the resort during the summer of 2011.  Some experts have suggested a link between recent construction or renovation work and the propagation of legionella bacteria in new plumbing systems.

Updates of this potential outbreak will be made when they are available.

Dr. Larry Madoff, Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Immunization at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, agreed, stating in The Atlantic that public health agencies become invisible when they’re doing their job well, and “this invisibility undermines [their] support.”  Such support could lead to fine-tuned and inexpensive diagnostic tests, along with updated methods of designing and distributing vaccines.  Lipkin further noted the importance of communication within the government and coordination with international agencies, and the necessity to promote effective data sharing.

Though Dr. Lipkin’s and Dr. Madoff’s entreaties follow their and other experts’ concession that emergency scenarios like the one played out in “Contagion” are realistic, their words apply also to the less dramatic realities of public health.  Legionnaires’ disease, for example, is a bacterial infection which is often mistaken for pneumonia, generating an impression of rareness; but Legionnaires’ disease is not especially rare, just under-diagnosed.  If better diagnostic tests can be developed, per Dr. Lipkin’s suggestion, and if more cases of Legionnaires’ disease can be properly diagnosed and reported, then responses to outbreaks of legionellosis can be improved and damages mitigated.  Legionnaires’ disease, after all, was once a mysterious illness that seemed to appear from nowhere, sickening over 200 people and killing 34 before its source was finally discovered.  Improvements in medical technologies and methods shouldn’t arise from a fear of what might happen, but rather from an understanding of – and a desire to change – unacceptable realities that are happening.

The question remains, however, why the hotel did not have an effective plan in the first place, one which could have prevented the legionella infection amongst several guests of the hotel.  If the hotel did already have a plan in place, then why did it fail?  If there was no plan – why not?

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Source:

http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20111201/NEWS01/112010350