Legionnaires’ disease cases found in former Rolla patients

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — State health officials are investigating four cases of Legionnaires’ disease among people who were hospitalized last year at Phelps Health in Rolla. The four patients were hospitalized between May and December of last year. The state health department announced Tuesday that investigators are trying to determine how the individuals acquired the infection. The health department said in a news release it was advising health care workers and the public who might have been in contact with water at the hospital about the cases “out of an abundance of caution.” Legionnaires’ disease is a serious type of pneumonia that generally occurs when people breathe in water droplets containing legionella bacteria.