The water at Westminster Towers, a senior retirement community in downtown Orlando, FL, tested positive for the Legionella bacteria, according to the Florida Department of Health in Orange County (FDHOC). Testing was performed by the FDHOC after officials were informed that a former resident of the facility had contracted Legionnaires’ disease.

An FDHOC spokesperson said the health department tested “pre-remediation” water samples, which returned the positive result.

Westminster Towers, which has more than 300 residents, commissioned Nalco Water in late July to hyper-chlorinate the water system, which raises the levels of chlorine in the water. It was the first time the company treated the community’s water system since the illness was reported in early July, according to a Nalco spokesperson.

Results from testing after the water treatment by Nalco have not been received.

Neither the health department nor Westminster Towers would provide further details about the status of the former resident.

Orlando a hotbed for Legionnaires’ in 2017

The Westminster Towers illness was the 21st confirmed or probable case of Legionnaires’ disease in Orange County this year. Also in July, two residents at Summit Greens, a 55-and-older living community in suburban Orlando, and four members at two LA Fitness clubs in the Orlando-area were infected with Legionnaires’ disease.

CDC: About 25,000 cases of Legionnaires’ annually

Legionnaires’ disease is a severe type of pneumonia or lung infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 25,000 cases of pneumonia due to Legionella bacteria (Legionella pneumophila) occur in the United States on a yearly basis. However, only 5,000 cases are reported because of the disease’s nonspecific signs and symptoms.

Legionella bacteria are contracted by inhaling microscopic water droplets in the form of mist or vapor. The bacteria, which thrive in warm water, are found primarily in human-made environments, such as cooling towers, air-conditioning systems, hot tubs, and spas, to name a few.

Complications of Legionnaires’ disease

After Legionnaires’ disease has been diagnosed, hospitalization is often necessary. In the most severe cases, complications can include respiratory failure, kidney failure, septic shock, or even death.

Anyone can get the disease, but those at the greatest risk of infection include:

  • people 50 or older
  • smokers (current or former)
  • heavy drinkers of alcoholic beverages
  • people with chronic lung disease
  • people with weakened immune systems.

Testing of the 116 cooling towers in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of Manhattan’s Upper East Side found the existence of Legionella DNA in 42 towers (36 percent), according to a fact sheet sent out by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). Low levels of Legionella bacteria, which causes Legionnaires’ disease, were found in 24 of the 42.

Testing of the towers was ordered June 16 by the DOHMH after Legionnaires’ disease sickened seven people in Lenox Hill and resulted in the death of a woman in her 90s. After the cluster was first announced, an eighth person took ill and was hospitalized but has since recovered.

Despite the positive tests, the DOHMH has been unable to identify a DNA match between a cooling-tower sample and any of those infected. All towers were disinfected, and towers contaminated with the Legionella bacteria have been cleaned. The city closed its investigation into the outbreak on July 10, according to a DOHMH spokesperson.

New York City receives an average of 200 to 400 reports of Legionnaires’ disease per year. The city’s largest outbreak occurred in 2015, when 12 people died and more than 120 were sickened in the South Bronx. Cooling towers were blamed in that occurrence.

Did you know that the world’s largest outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease occurred in July 2001 in Murcia, Spain? More than 800 cases were suspected, with 449 confirmed cases and six fatalities. To blame? The cooling towers at a city hospital, according to an epidemiologic investigation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that Legionnaires’ disease cases in the United States have risen by a staggering 286 percent since 2000, and a recent test of 196 cooling towers across the U.S. revealed that 84 percent were positive for the Legionella bacteria.

Despite the fact that cooling towers are a known source for transmitting the bacteria, legislators and activists can’t agree on what steps to take to prevent outbreaks. After a 2016 Legionnaires’ outbreak in Hopkins, MN, that sickened 23 and produced one death, State Rep. Cheryl Youakim (DFL-Hopkins) introduced a bill to create a state registry of cooling towers to more quickly identify the source of outbreaks.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit Alliance to Prevent Legionnaires’ Disease – which is supported by cooling-tower manufacturers – believes drinking water, not cooling towers, should be the primary concern of Legionnaires’ prevention. “The focus … on building equipment is misplaced,” Daryn Cline, who works for the Alliance and cooling-tower manufacturer Evapco, said in an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “More must be done to better monitor and disinfect against Legionella in the public drinking-water system.”

The only thing known for certain is there is still much to learn about Legionnaires’ disease. It has been 16 years since the Murcia event, and deaths and illnesses are still occurring due to Legionella infection from cooling towers.

Two more individuals were confirmed to have been sickened with Legionnaires’ disease after visiting The Guest House at Graceland hotel in Memphis, TN, Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) officials said Thursday. That brings the number of infected to five.

The hotel, which opened last October on the grounds of the former home of Elvis Presley, remains open to guests, but the aquatics facilities, including the pool and hot tub, were temporarily closed June 26 after SCHD officials confirmed the initial three cases. The pool and hot tub are believed to be the possible sources for the Legionella bacteria, which causes Legionnaires’ disease, but health officials won’t know for certain until laboratory testing is completed. Results are expected within the next 10 days.

SCHD officials reiterated that anyone who stayed at or visited the hotel between May 15 and June 26 and experienced pneumonia- or flu-like symptoms within two weeks of their visit should contact the SCHD Hotline at (901) 222-9299 and seek immediate medical attention.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Legionnaires’ disease is often under-reported, so the full extent of the outbreak may not be known if people don’t report their condition.

The LA Fitness in Metro West, a suburb of Orlando, FL, has tested positive for Legionella bacteria, less than a week after an LA Fitness in Hunter’s Creek also returned positive results for the disease-causing bacteria, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Both clubs have been under investigation since May by the Florida Department of Health in Orange County (FDHOC) after two members at each of the Orlando-area clubs were diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease. The four individuals infected with the disease did not seek further treatment, according to Kent Donahue, a spokesperson for the FDHOC.

The FDHOC ordered both facilities to hyper-chlorinate their water supplies and put filters on shower heads. The agency is awaiting results of follow-up testing to see if the Legionella bacteria has been eradicated by the remediation efforts.

The Hunter’s Creek LA Fitness tested positive for the Legionella bacteria – one of two Orlando-area LA Fitness clubs currently under investigation – according to the Florida Department of Health in Orange County (FDHOC). The Hunter’s Creek club is located at 12700 S. Orange Blossom Trail, about 12 miles south of downtown Orlando.

The test results are pending for the second club, located in the Metro West area at 4792 Kirkman Road.

Two patrons from both clubs were infected with Legionnaires’ disease, sparking the investigation. The status of those four individuals is not known.

In April, three members of the LA Fitness club in Ocoee, a suburb of Orlando, contracted Legionnaires’ disease, but tests for Legionella at that facility were negative.

Three people have been infected with Legionnaires’ disease at The Guest House at Graceland in Memphis, TN, the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) announced in a news conference today.

The SCHD is investigating for the existence of the Legionella bacteria and ordered the hotel to temporarily close the aquatics center, which includes the hot tub and pool facilities. Those areas were shut down on Monday (June 26) and will remain closed until the investigation is complete.

“The hot tubs and pools are known sites, riskier sites, but because we know this particular bacterium can be in other parts of the water systems for hotels, we are also including that (in our investigation),” Dr. Helen Morrow, the SCHD Health Officer, said during the news conference. “So the investigation and remediation is not strictly limited to those sites. We’re looking at the entire facility.”

The Guest House at Graceland, one of the largest hotels in Memphis with 450 rooms, opened to the public in October 2016. Individuals who stayed at or visited the hotel between May 15 and June 26 and experienced pneumonia- or flu-like symptoms within two weeks of their visit should contact the Shelby County Health Department Hotline at (901) 222-9299 and seek immediate medical attention.

 

A second police officer at the 23rd Precinct in East Harlem has contracted Legionnaires’ disease, NYPD officials have confirmed. “The officer did not require any hospitalization and is being treated with medication,” the department said in a statement.

Earlier in June, an officer at the precinct was diagnosed with Legionnaires’ and hospitalized outside of Manhattan. He has since recovered.

Preliminary test results after the first illness found traces of the Legionella bacteria in 19 of 20 samples, according to sources. However, additional testing of the facility’s systems and water supply by investigators for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) came back negative. Further testing will be conducted in the coming weeks.

Because the disease is contracted by breathing in water vapor or mist contaminated with Legionella bacteria, health officials are recommending that precinct officers not take showers until the investigation is complete. In addition, prisoners have been transferred to other precincts, and no new prisoners will be held until the all-clear has been given to the building.

The NYPD incidents are unrelated to the Legionnaires’ outbreak being experienced in the Lenox Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In that outbreak, one person has died and six others have been hospitalized, and the investigation is ongoing.

 

Did you know that the earliest known outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the United States occurred in Minnesota in 1957?

Between June 7 and August 9 of that year, 78 people in Austin – many who worked at the local Hormel meat-packing plant – were hospitalized with an acute respiratory disease, most suffering symptoms that included fever, headache, cough, and pneumonia. Two victims died.

The scientific breakthrough that helped identify the outbreak – and give the disease a name – occurred in December 1976 when Dr. Joseph McDade, a laboratory scientist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), isolated the bacterium that caused the disease and identified it as Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila). McDade was trying to find the cause of an illness that sickened more than 200 and resulted in the deaths of 34 who attended the 1976 American Legion Bicentennial Convention at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. The following April, the CDC gave the mystery illness a name: Legionnaires’ disease.

It wouldn’t be determined that the Austin outbreak was Legionnaires’ disease until 1979, when a test of blood serum of 15 of the 1957 victims showed elevated levels of L. pneumophila in 12 cases. The blood work, combined with the clinical and epidemiologic observations of the outbreak, supported the assertion that Austin was the earliest U.S. occurrence of Legionnaires’ disease.

The identification of the L. pneumophila bacterium enabled CDC scientists to search for similar unsolved outbreaks. In addition to the Austin event in 1957, earlier outbreaks were determined to have occurred at a psychiatric hospital in Washington, DC, in 1965, and also at a convention of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in 1974.

A woman in her 90s has died and six other people have been sickened in an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to New York City health officials. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is investigating the outbreak in the Lenox Hill neighborhood, which runs south to north from East 60th Street to East 77th Street and west to east from Park Avenue to the East River.

Four of the infected are still hospitalized, and two have recovered and been discharged. The elderly woman who passed away had “significant underlying health conditions,” according to the health department.

The DOHMH has been investigating cooling towers (air-conditioning equipment) in the neighborhood, looking for the existence of Legionella bacteria. Cooling towers within a half-mile of the affected area – 116 in total – have been inspected and tested, according to Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the health commissioner. Results of the investigation may take up to two weeks.

A person usually catches Legionnaires’ disease – a serious type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria – by inhaling microscopic water droplets in the form of mist or vapor. Incidents of Legionnaires’ disease typically rise during warmer weather. People at higher risk of getting sick are those 50 years of age or older, current or former smokers, those with a chronic lung disease, and those with a weakened immune system.

People who live in Lenox Hill or travel through the area regularly and are exhibiting pneumonia- or flu-like symptoms – especially anybody displaying those symptoms since the start of June – should seek immediate medical attention.

In 2016, New York reported 718 cases of Legionnaires’ disease, more than any other state.