- If a company or organization in the UK fails to prevent the spread of legionella on their premises and someone dies of Legionnaires’ Disease as a result, the company could face a charge of corporate manslaughter. As of now, a town council and a discount home improvement warehouse have faced corporate manslaughter charges as a result of Legionnaires’ Disease outbreaks.
- Following an outbreak of the flu that affected around 120 people who had attended a party at the Playboy Mansion, tests on the mansion’s pool and hot tub showed positive results for legionella bacteria.
- Though the first officially recorded Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak at Philadelphia’s Stratford-Bellevue Hotel caused 180 cases of Legionnaires’ Disease and claimed the lives out 34 people, it was not the largest ever outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease. The largest outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease occurred in 2001 in the city of Murcia, Spain. A cooling tower from a downtown hospital was the source of legionella that was responsible for 449 confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ Disease. This outbreak, however, had one of the lowest fatality rates (~1%) of any recorded outbreak.
- Legionella bacteria is not relegated to one specific continent or geographic region. Legionella bacteria (specifically legionella pneumophila) has even been found in water samples taken from a frozen lake in Antarctica.
Jules Zacher is an attorney in Philadelphia who has tried Legionnaires’ disease cases across the U.S. Please visit LegionnaireLawyer.com again for updates.