On December 20, 2016, a Complaint was filed in Lucas County Common Pleas Court by seven employees of Lucas County Department of Job & Family Services after the employees developed illnesses from exposure to Legionella bacteria. The cooling system within the company building located at 3210 Monroe Street, tested positive for Legionella bacteria. Six of the seven Plaintiffs are still employed at the company, while the seventh has since retired. The Complaint was filed as a product liability case against Watcon Inc. of South Bend, Ind.; Baltimore Aircoil Co. of Baltimore, Md.; Sarmento Mechanical Sales Inc. of Sylvania; the city…
Residents of an assisted living facility on Staten Island have been informed of a single case of Legionnaires’ disease on the premises. The unidentified patient is a resident of The Brielle at Seaview, a non-profit assisted living community, and has been discharged from care. No further information about the patient has been released. The notification is part of a city-wide plan implemented after last year’s Bronx outbreaks. Part of the newly instituted plan involves notifying facilities with high-risk populations when one or more cases are reported. The Brielle, with its aging population, falls into this category, though health officials noted that…
An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in upstate New York continues to grow. A fifth case has now been confirmed in Plattsburgh, NY. All of the patients live in the same apartment complex on the west side of the city, and officials have notified other residents of the complex about the outbreak. The first four cases were identified in October. The patients have been treated at the Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital; the first four patients have been discharged, and the final patient remains at the hospital in stable condition. The Clinton County Health Department has been collecting water samples from the apartment…
A resident of a county-run nursing home in Pennsylvania was diagnosed on October 24 with Legionnaires’ disease, and officials believe she contracted it from her residence. McKeesport Regional Care Center, where the woman lives, has taken measures to guard against the possibility of further cases. The woman was hospitalized and diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease at UPMC McKeesport. After being informed of the case, management at McKeesport RCC distributed bottled water and put the water system at the nursing home out of commission. They also sent a letter informing patients and their families about the diagnosis. Management also sampled water from…
A late-summer cluster of Legionnaires’ disease cases in Buffalo, NY is still under investigation. The investigation began when state-mandated testing revealed that a cooling tower at the East Niagara Hospital contained elevated levels of Legionella bacteria. Testing is now being done to determine whether the strain of Legionella in the patients’ bodies is the same as that in the cooling tower. Recent legislation in New York has required building owner to test all cooling every 90 days and log their results with the State Health Department. In a routine test of the hospital’s cooling tower, levels of Legionella were found to be ten times those allowed…
An employee of Fiat Chrysler has contracted Legionnaires’ disease, and company officials are now conducting tests to ensure that their plant is not the source. The Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit, MI was built in 1991 and employs about 5,000 people. The company learned of the employee’s diagnosis on Wednesday. Though the source of the bacteria is still unknown, officials are now testing the water sources at the plant. The company’s “abundance of caution for the safety and welfare” of its employees is likely prompted by the recent attention that Legionnaires’ disease has received in the nearby Flint, MI…
Two patients at the Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue, WA were diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease in September. One, a patient in her 50s, was treated for the disease at a different hospital six days after she visited Overlake’s emergency department. The other, a man in his 60s, had been in the hospital for treatment when he contracted the disease. The male patient had a compromised immune system due to a preexisting medical condition. Hospital officials have stated that it is unclear where the second patient contracted the disease. Preliminary tests, however, showed the presence of Legionella bacteria in a sink and…
State health officials have identified the likely source of a record-setting Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Hopkins, MN. The bacteria has been traced to a set of cooling towers at Citrus Systems, Inc., a local beverage manufacturer. 23 people have fallen ill with Legionnaires’ disease in Hopkins; 17 of them were hospitalized, and one died. The town has been struggling to identify the source of the outbreak since early September. Health officials studied the distribution of cases and the habits of the individuals affected; several water sources throughout the town were tested for Legionella bacteria. The investigation was eventually narrowed to cover a…
Officials have updated the number of cases of Legionnaires’ disease associated with the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Memphis, TN. The Shelby County Health Department says that there are now seven confirmed cases of the disease among guests of the hotel, in addition to twenty-three possible cases. The hotel was shut down on September 22 after five former guests were diagnosed with Legionnaires’ and the outbreak was linked to the hotel. The hotel’s franchise owners worked with various health departments to eliminate the bacteria from the water supply. Now, the hotel is planning to reopen after a shutdown of nearly two weeks. No…
A patient at the UW Medical Center in Seattle, WA has filed a claim against the hospital after she contracted Legionnaires’ disease while recovering from a transplant. Victoria Martin, 32, underwent a successful heart transplant on August 8, 2016. She was placed on a standard program of immunosuppressant drugs, which made her more vulnerable to infections and bactera such as Legionella. When she contracted Legionnaires’ disease after the transplant, she was put on a respirator in the ICU for 25 days. She spent a total of 35 days in the hospital undergoing treatment for the disease. She still returns to…