State health officials require legionnaires’ disease be reported within 24 hours
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services recently added legionnaires’ disease to its list of diseases that must be reported within 24 hours.
Before it was added, health care providers had up to three days to report the disease to state officials.
Legionnaires’ disease is a lung infection caused by Legionella bacteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease on the rise in Missouri, according to DHSS.
The state has seen more than 100 cases of the disease, and five people in Missouri have died so far in 2019, two of which were in mid-Missouri according to DHSS. Eight others have been infected with the disease in the state this year.
University of Missouri Infectious Disease Specialist, Dr. Christelle Ilboudo, said the disease is becoming increasing common, and health care leaders are not sure why.
“About one in 10 of people who get infected can die from it,” Ilboudo said.
Ilboudo said the disease is especially deadly to the elderly and people with a weakened or suppressed immune system.
Symptoms can be vague, Ilboudo said, and can include cough, congestion and fever.
The bacteria are not generally passed through person-to-person contact but is instead inhaled through steam, according to the CDC.
“It’s usually where you have your complex water systems, (the bacteria) likes to live in warm water,” Ilboudo said. “It can live in water heating systems or tanks.”
Other locations with high breeding grounds for the disease are hotels, health care facilities, nursing homes and public pools.
Recently, one person died from the disease after an outbreak at an Atlanta, Georgia, hotel.
The Columbia Housing Authority said a resident at one of its facilities came down with the illness.
However, after a four-hour long state inspection, the facility showed no traces of the disease.
The CDC said the disease can mostly be prevented with better water management.
“You want to find a place that abides by standards which is checking the water routinely to make sure there isn’t legionnaires’ in the water system,” Iboudo said.
Research suggests the disease is extremely challenging to pinpoint because the bacteria can travel nearly four miles.
ABC 17 has sunshine requested all locations that have been associated with legionnaires’ disease in mid-Missouri.
