This past Monday, February 19, a Philadelphia-based global molecular solutions company called Invisible Sentinel Inc. announced its first-in-class Legionella species assay had been verified and adopted by a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) ELITE Certified Laboratory called Q Laboratories, Inc. The CDC ELITE, or Environmental Legionella Isolation Techniques Evaluation, is a CDC designation for labs that have shown proficiency with isolating, growing, and identifying Legionella from samples collected in the environment. Traditional screening methods, however, can often take up to two weeks so a development like the one touted by Invisible Sentinel would certainly mark a significant improvement. The new…
About a month ago, we began discussing the Quincy, Illinois Veterans Home outbreak. Since then, we have followed legislative attempts as well as the revelation last week that there were in fact 2 new cases found. Now just a week later, it was reported last night that there are, in fact, two additional cases stemming from the Qunicy, Illinois Veterans Home. The Illinois Department of Public Health made this announcement on Tuesday, just hours after the state’s Senate Democrats had held a series of hearings regarding the outbreaks. This fourth patient is apparently in stable condition and the central issue being discussed by Senate…
Over the course of the past month, we have not only covered various sporadic cases and outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease, but have also tried to shine light onto other developments within the field. A seemingly simple question, however, has been on my mind as I continue to go through these stories; is there a vaccine that could prevent individuals from being at risk to Legionnaires’ disease? And if there is not a vaccine, then why not? Well the first question is relatively simple to answer; no, there are currently no vaccines for Legionnaires’ disease. There have certainly been attempts to…
Over the past few weeks, we have been following the Quincy, Illinois Veterans Home outbreak, one which has so far contributed to the death of 13 residents of the Veterans home while infecting dozens more. Now, as of this morning, officials have come forward and reported that in fact two additional confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease among the residents of the veterans’ home have been discovered. Meanwhile the Illinois Department of Public Health made an announcement Monday evening that it had already removed faucets from residents’ rooms in the veteran’s home and were collecting water samples along with taking other…
In a previous post, we discussed the origins and very early beginnings of Legionnaires’ disease. In this post, we are hoping to slowly move through time and discuss some significant outbreaks and moments of Legionnaires’ disease history. Perhaps the first major outbreak after the 1976 Philadelphia incident would be with Stafford, England. In April 1985, approximately 175 people were admitted into the Kingsmead Stafford Hospital with pneumonia. Of these cases, around 28 individuals ended up dying with the origin of the infection being discovered to be the Stafford District Hospital. About a decade later, in March 1999, the Bovenkarspel legionellosis…
On Tuesday, February 6, 2018, a Brooke Army Medical Center staff member was confirmed to have Legionnaires’ disease. This confirmation was made by the Brooke Army Medical Center spokesman Robert Whetstone on Wednesday, February 7, 2018 and in addition to the two previous cases of Legionnaires disease reported last August, makes this incident officially an outbreak according to the Emerging and Acute Infectious Disease Guidelines. According to Mr. Whetstone, “the health and safety of our patients and staff is our top priority, and we are working diligently with local and regional public health officials to investigate this matter,”. In addition, Whetstone added that Brooke…
Once more, it appears perhaps a prudent time to take a step back to examine Legionnaires’ disease. As such, while in a previous post we discussed some of the signs, symptoms, and diagnostic methods for identifying Legionnaires’ disease, today’s post seeks to review the history of Legionnaires’ disease. While Legionella bacteria and Legionnaires’ disease has presumably existed for a very long time, it was only truly discovered and researched after an outbreak in 1976. At a convention of the American Legion in Philadelphia, numerous attendees began to suffer from this type of pneumonia, i.e. lung infection, a phenomena which garnered…
Last Thursday, February 1, 2018, Frans Timmermans, the vice-president of the European commission, announced changes to the drinking water directive which put additional responsibilities on national governments within the EU. These responsibilities, specifically, would push national governments to provide greater access to drinking fountains as well as prompt additional restaurants to offer free tap water. This is all being done to reduce plastic waste and ultimately improve the health of Europeans yet in order to do this second objective fully, the initiative must also ensure water safety is being elevated as well. This means that this current push will not only raise…
Back in June of 2017, public health officials began to learn about the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease which occurred at the Rio Hotel-Casino, an outbreak which initially involved only 2 reported cases. Now, nearly 8 months later, the Southern Nevada Health District is reporting that in fact the Rio Hotel-Casino outbreak in fact involved 7 confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease with a potential of 29 additional cases being suspected. This kind of continued treatment and additional cases being revealed is, in some ways, relatively normal for a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak. As Robert Cole, senior environmental health specialist for the Southern…
In a study released late last year, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that cooling towers (CTs) were found to be a leading source of Legionnaires’ disease outbreak across the United States. These results were obtained by obtaining aliquots from various water samples collected during routine Legionella testing from approximately 196 cooling towers across eight of the nine continental US climate regions in order to control for regional differences. After examining these 196 samples, Legionella spp were found in 78 of the samples, L. pneomophila were isolated in approximately 53 of the samples, and L. pneumophila serogroup 1…