Legionnaires’ patients recovering; Grady may be source

Grady Memorial Hospital itself is the most likely source of the Legionnaires’ disease that has sickened four patients since Jan. 1, but results from water tests inside the hospital will not be ready until Monday.

All four patients are responding well to antibiotics, hospital spokeswoman Denise Simpson said Friday.

Dr. Susan Lance, a state epidemiologist, said the patients diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease appear to have no ties other than their treatment at the hospital in downtown Atlanta. According to the Georgia Division of Public Health, the disease can be contracted by breathing in the bacteria, carried by water mists from showers, hot tubs, or heating and air conditioning units.

State and federal public health officials are helping Grady Memorial Hospital track down the source of the bacteria. Preliminary results of water tests inside the hospital will arrive Monday and final results should be available Thursday, hospital spokeswoman Denise Simpson said.

As a precaution, the hospital is superheating its hot water to 284 degrees to kill any bacteria, Simpson said. The next step would be super-chlorination.

Grady also moved patients out of sections of the 11th and 12th floors where the infected patients had stayed before returning to the hospital with pneumonia-like symptoms identified as legionellosis, Simpson said.

As of Friday morning, three of the patients remained at Grady. Simpson said they were responding well to antibiotics. The fourth was well enough to go home. Their names were not released.

On average, Grady treats two or three patients a year for Legionnaires’ disease contracted elsewhere, Simpson said.

After Grady doctors diagnosed the fourth patient with the disease in less than five weeks, the hospital’s epidemiologist “thought it was an unusual spike” and notified the administration Tuesday, she said.

Grady contacted the state and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and called in Norcross-based PathCon Laboratories, outside experts on indoor air microbiology and safety. Pathcon took water samples Wednesday morning, Simpson said.

CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said Grady officials are “on top of the situation.”

Of the 8,000 to 18,000 people diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease every year in the U.S., about one-quarter were infected in a health care setting, Skinner said. In those cases, the Legionella bacteria is often found in the plumbing.

Lance, the state epidemiolgist, said Grady is working to identify any other patients who might have contracted the disease. Medical investigators led by the hospital’s infection control team are also reviewing medical charts of the infected patients to identify any common risk factors for future prevention, she said.

“They’ve been extremely proactive,” Lance said of Grady’s officials.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DISEASE

• Legionnaires’ disease is not contagious. People with already compromised immune systems, such as older people and smokers, are most likely to contract it by breathing in contaminated water mists from showers, hot tubs and heating and cooling systems.

• Legionella bacteria are common in the environment, particularly in warm, stagnant water. Symptoms usually begin 2 to 14 days after exposure, but most people do not become ill.

• Symptoms for Legionnaires’ disease are similar to those for pneumonia, including fever, chills and a cough. It is fatal in 5 percent to 30 percent of cases.

• Since 2005, Georgia has reported an annual average of 41 legionellosis cases.

• The disease got its name from an outbreak at a American Legion convention in Philadelphia in 1976.

• For more information about the disease, call Grady at 404-616-5559. Anyone hospitalized at Grady in the past month who may be currently ill with Legionnaires’ disease should call 404-616-0600.

Sources: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Division of Public Health.