Legionnaires Disease

An employee of the William Donald Schaefer Tower downtown was stricken with Legionnaires' disease, and several others with respiratory illnesses are being examined, but state officials were cautioning yesterday that they don't believe the building is contaminated. "Right now, what we have is one case," Gov. Martin O'Malley told reporters yesterday at a news conference inside the building. "If there were a second case in this building, that would tell us we have to go into a much deeper level of forensic examination."

State health officials confirmed Wednesday the presence of Legionella bacteria in the water at Plim Plaza Hotel in Ocean City . Officials have also announced three new cases of Legionnaire's disease among hotel guests, in addition to the three cases announced last week. One elderly out-of-state resident has died. The bacteria was found in several water samples taken from the hotel, which is closed for the season, according to officials from the Worcester County Health Department and the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, who have been investigating.

PEOPLE sometimes can catch diseases in hospitals. It appears that at least five people, three of whom died, may have contracted Legionnaires' disease at Harford Memorial Hospital. At least one family believes hospital officials were not forthcoming about the source of their relative's fatal disease.Outbreaks of the disease, caused by the Legionella bacterium, are more common than generally recognized. The bacteria grow in water and are present in water systems, air conditioners and whirlpools.

"Big" Max Taylor Jr. barely survived the Legionnaire's disease he contracted last year while living at a Baltimore retirement community for low-income seniors, but he's not sure his current existence quite qualifies as living. His speech is slurred, his balance is off, and he uses a walker to get from place to place — effects of the stroke he says was brought on by the Legionnaire's. He's had to move from Baltimore, where he was born and raised, to Charlotte, N.C., so his grown son, "Little" Max Taylor III, can tend to his basic needs.

A patient at Villa St. Michael Nursing Home in Northwest Baltimore has been diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease and state and city officials are conducting tests to determine if the Legionella bacteria are in the facility's hot-water system. J.B Hansen, a spokesman for the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said test samples were taken at the 200-bed nursing home this week and that results are expected late next week. Hansen said a patient at Villa St. Michael, whom he declined to identify but described as a woman in her 80s, was recently found to have Legionnaires' disease and is undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

The Baltimore County health director warned county and state employees at a Towson office building yesterday to watch for symptoms of Legionnaires' disease after a Health Department staffer contracted the disease.In a memo from Dr. Michelle A. Leverett, about 700 county and state employees were notified that Legionnaires' disease, which could be spread through a building's water and ventilation systems, has been diagnosed in a worker in the Investment Building.An environmental consultant will test the drinking water and the ventilation system in the 13-story building off York Road, said an attorney for the building's owner, A.M.G.

Havre de Grace rests like a jewel on the shores of the Susquehanna River, a town of 12,000 where antiques shops and an ice cream parlor share space with restaurants. It is not unusual to spot a neighbor biking down to the marina to walk the wooden promenade or feed the ducks.At the heart of the town is Harford Memorial Hospital, an 85-year-old institution in a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood."It's a community hospital," Havre de Grace City Manager Mary Ann Lisanti said of the hospital, the town's largest employer and one of the largest in Harford County.

The bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease was found in the water systems of a Towson office building where hundreds of state and county employees work, but the organism is probably no longer there, building managers and Baltimore County health officials said yesterday.Testers from Clayton Environmental Consultants of Novi, Mich., took water samples in the 13-story Investment Building, off York Road in central Towson. The building's water systems were disinfected earlier this month, after an unidentified woman who works there was diagnosed with the disease.

A Baltimore Circuit Court employee has contracted Legionnaires' disease, the second courthouse worker since October to catch the respiratory illness, which is spread by contaminated air conditioning and other air-circulation systems. The employee, who was not identified, has recovered and is expected back at work soon, Administrative Judge Ellen M. Heller said. Both Legionnaires' patients worked at Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse, built in 1900 and equipped with what courthouse workers called a "byzantine" ventilation system.

One worker at a Southeast Baltimore plant has died of suspected Legionnaires' disease and eight others have developed possibly related respiratory illnesses, forcing the company to shut down more than a third of its plant while the state health department investigates the outbreak.Poly-Seal Corp., a maker of plastic caps and seals, has laid off about 250 workers -- roughly half its work force -- while the plant is partly closed during the investigation.It could take a "couple of weeks" for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to investigate, health and company officials said yesterday at a news conference at the plant in the Holabird Industrial Park.

Workers began disinfecting the water at Stadium Place on Friday while officials wait to learn whether the apartment complex was the source of the Legionnaire's disease that has killed one elderly resident and sickened five others. Specialists from Legionella Risk Management added chlorine dioxide, a chemical used in treatment systems, to the water supply at the senior facility on the former site of Memorial Stadium, and 10 two-person teams swept through individual apartments to flush out water pipes and raise the temperature on water heaters.

City and state health officials reassured an anxious, standing-room-only crowd of elderly residents of Stadium Place on Friday that the Legionnaires' disease that killed one of their number and sickened four others cannot be spread from person to person. Residents of the senior housing community on the former site of Memorial Stadium peppered officials with dozens of questions - many focused on how they could protect themselves from contracting the sometimes-fatal form of pneumonia and whether authorities had responded quickly enough to the outbreak.

City and state officials are scrambling for clues to what caused an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at a senior living facility on the former site of Memorial Stadium, leaving one person dead and four others sickened. Officials at the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Baltimore Health Department were interviewing those who have fallen ill and planning to test water sources to try to determine the origin of the outbreak at Stadium Place, a retirement community built 10 years ago. Authorities also were informing residents about symptoms so any new cases can be caught early.

The building where Johns Hopkins Hospital cares for its transplant patients is on water restrictions this week after routine tests of the water system on July 2 turned up evidence of the bacterium that causes Legionnaires' disease. A hospital spokesman said no patients or employees have been infected by the organism, which can cause a lung infection fatal in 5 percent to 30 percent of cases. "No one is sick. Nor has anyone at the hospital been identified, either patient or staff, as having picked up a Legionella infection," said Hopkins spokesman David March.

Tests at a downtown state office building where an employee came down with Legionnaires' disease were negative for the bacteria that causes the illness, officials said yesterday. When workers arrived at the William Donald Schaefer Tower on St. Paul Street yesterday morning, they were handed a memo informing them of the lab test results, according to Dave Humphrey, a spokesman for the Department of General Services, which operates the facility. A routine annual test done on the air-conditioning system's cooling tower showed no signs of live Legionella bacteria, he said.

An employee of the William Donald Schaefer Tower downtown was stricken with Legionnaires' disease, and several others with respiratory illnesses are being examined, but state officials were cautioning yesterday that they don't believe the building is contaminated. "Right now, what we have is one case," Gov. Martin O'Malley told reporters yesterday at a news conference inside the building. "If there were a second case in this building, that would tell us we have to go into a much deeper level of forensic examination."

As health officials identified a fourth case of Legionnaires' disease yesterday among employees of a Southeast Baltimore plastics plant, Poly-Seal Corp. announced it will close the factory this morning to disinfect its water systems.The factory's five water systems will be flushed with very hot water and high concentrations of chlorine to make certain that no Legionella pneumophila bacteria remain, said Levi Rabinowitz, a media consultant hired by Poly-Seal to speak for the company.Waterchem, an Aberdeen company that maintains the plant's water systems, will coordinate the cleanup.

Maryland General Hospital has shut off its hot water after routine tests showed low levels of Legionella bacteria in the water system. The bacteria, which can cause Legionnaires' disease, were detected Tuesday night during quarterly testing of water quality, said Monica Smith, a hospital spokeswoman. None of the 230-bed hospital's operations has been shut down or curtailed as a result of the problem, she said. Patients are being admitted, and no patients or staff members have shown signs of the disease, she said.

Stan Williams was hospitalized in 2000 at Harford Memorial Hospital with Legionnaires' disease -- a bacterial pneumonia caused by an infection from a contaminated air conditioner, cooling towers or stagnant water supplies -- and spent 20 days in a coma. His family was told repeatedly that he wasn't going to wake up. When he did, the hospital staff thought it was a miracle. He attributes his recovery to the care he received at the hospital. Although he recovered from the coma, the illness left him unable to feel his feet at times, rendering him permanently disabled and unable to return to work as a firefighter.