Earlier this month, a resident at a Veterans Home in Fresno, California tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease. There were no other incidents at the facility, according to Deputy Secretary for Communication at the California Department of Veterans Affairs June Iljana, and apparently residents, staff and visitors at the Veterans home were receiving bottled water out of precaution. It is worth noting that according to Iljana, the particular resident who contracted Legionnaires’ disease lived in the residential care portion and would come and go at their own will so “could have been exposed somewhere else”. That said, in 2017, two Fresno…
Illinois state health officials have been having a difficult couple of weeks as continued questions move ahead over the state’s response to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at Quincy, Illinois’ Veterans Home. Those difficult weeks may be extended by quite a bit more after this week’s testing at the Illinois Capital Building. Late on Monday, 1/22/18, an email by officials announced the preliminary results of testing. The initial testing apparently did not go over well, a move which prompted House Speaker Michael Madigan’s chief of staff, Tim Mapes, to send a memo the very next day to prompt everyone at the…
Last year, on February 20, 2016, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection released a proposed rule in the Pennsylvania Bulletin which called for the state’s water utilities to maintain a 0.2 mg/L chlorine residual in the water distribution system. This kind of active form of prevention should not only reduce the risk to individuals and families, but should also allow the groundwork necessary for other states across the country to pursue similar preventative actions. Indeed water distribution endpoints (i.e. all locations prior to potable water entering a residential or commercial building) are vital spots for potentially legionella bacteria formation. As…
In August of 2015, 133 Bronx residents contracted Legionnaires’ disease, an outbreak which ultimately resulted in the death of 16 individuals. This incident would be the worst recorded outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York state’s history however now, more than two years later, New York continues to show problems as 2017 posts a record number of cases, including a far larger rate of Legionnaires’ disease than just about every other state per capita. New York once again led the United States for reported cases of Legionnaires’ disease in 2017 with a total of 1,009 cases reported to the CDC. And far from the situation improving, this rate of…
During this year’s CES conference, Site 1001, a company which specializes in artificial intelligence-run facilities management systems and previously spun off of JE Dunn Construction Co. showcased its artificial intelligence driven predictive maintenance system. Essentially, with any artificial intelligence driven facility, not only should the program be able to access information about every aspect of the building, but also be able to have the program automatically solve any problem which may arise on its own. The way to do this, according to Site 1001, is through neural networks that copy how sentient creatures think. As such, one prominent example of this kind…
In June 2017, a guest who had stayed at the Guest House of Elvis Presley Enterprises’ (EPE) Graceland estate in Memphis, TN had passed away. Three months later, the widow and family members sued EPE, claiming that the victim had contracted Legionnaires’ disease from the estate’s hot tub and swimming pool. Now 7 months after that initial death, it is being reported that EPE is filing a separate lawsuit against two particular pool companies involved with the upkeep and maintenance of the hot tub and swimming pool. Apparently officials with EPE are claiming in their own lawsuit that these two pool…
Over the course of 2014 and 2015, approximately a dozen people died from an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease during Flint’s water crisis. Now it appears as though some of the next steps regarding a potential prosecution are moving ahead. To start, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon is scheduled to restart his preliminary examination this Friday, Jan. 19 and is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter along with misconduct in office. This is significant because Lyon appears to be one of the state public health officials who was aware of the Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks in the Flint…
In our previous post, we discussed first steps for institutions to take in order to develop an effective water management plan to reduce the risk of Legionnaires’ disease. And while it is certainly true that Legionnaires’ disease can occur within larger buildings, including older structures with older pipes, there is also the potential to encounter Legionella bacteria and Legionnaires’ disease with outdoor activities, including through gardening. There are a couple of reasons for this. As this site has discussed before, Legionella bacteria often forms in stagnant and standing pools of water, particularly when this water happens to be warm. When…
The recent hearing regarding the outbreak of Legionnaires disease in Quincy, Illinois serves to further highlight the importance of not only a rapid response, but more importantly, a strong prevention strategy. Indeed according to the Center for Disease Control, 9 out of 10 Legionnaires’ disease cases could have been prevented, a staggering figure which emphasizes the importance of prevention. With this in mind, this post serves to provide a general overview of methods institutions can take in order to reduce the risk of Legionnaires disease. First and foremost, reviewing the effectiveness of your water management plan regularly can make a…
Last week, on January 9th, Illinois state officials gathered for a hearing on the Legionnaires’ outbreak which occurred at the Quincy, Illinois Veterans Home and has resulted in the death of 13 people since August 2015. This hearing not only discussed the causes of this outbreak and what responses were taken in its aftermath, but also reviewed next steps forward to ensure that such an incident would not happen again. As a review, the first reported case of this outbreak at the veterans home arrived in late July 2015 with a second identified case arriving just a few weeks later.…