The Southern Nevada Health District issued a public health notice Monday after receiving reports from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that three Luxor Resort guests who were diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease, including one fatality.
According to the notice, the first two cases were reported in the spring of 2011, however, water samples taken from the hotel turned up negative for the bacterium.
Both patients have recovered from their illness.
A third case, a fatality, was reported in January of this year. Because of this report, the health district initiated a new epidemiological and environmental investigation. At this time environmental sampling was positive for Legionella bacteria.
The Luxor responded with a program of remediation, which includes super-heating and super-chlorination of the water system. The hotel, owned by MGM International, also posted information about the disease on a Web page and has a hotline for guests to call.
Hotel spokesman, Gordon Absher, said "We are confident in the integrity of our systems and the safety protocols we follow at all our hotels. Guest and employee safety is always a top priority at our company. Even before last summer, MGM Resorts led the industry with aggressive and stringent programs to control Legionella issues common to all large buildings."
Legionnaires’ disease gained national notoriety in 1976 when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered it during an epidemic of pneumonia among American legion members at a convention in Philadelphia.
The causative organism is the bacteria, Legionella pneumophila. The legionella bacteria are found throughout nature, because of this, most people become exposed to it but few develop symptoms.
The primary place in nature it’s found is water sources particularly at warmer temperatures; lakes, rivers and moist soil.
It is also found in man-made facilities (frequently the source of outbreaks) such as air-conditioning ducts and cooling towers, humidifiers, whirlpools and hospital equipment.
People get exposed through inhaling infectious aerosols from these water sources. There is no transmission from person to person.
The infection can appear in two clinical forms: Legionnaires’ disease and Pontiac fever.
Both conditions are typified by headache, fever, body aches and occasionally abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Legionnaires’ disease is the cause of pneumonia where a non productive cough is typical. Fatality rates of this form of the infection are around 15 % even with improvements in treatment.
Pontiac fever is a self limiting flu-like illness that does not progress to pneumonia or death. Diagnosis is usually made by typical symptoms in a outbreak setting.
Diagnosis of Legionnaires’ disease depends on identifying the bacteria in microbiological culture, detecting the antigen in urine samples or a fourfold increase in antibody titer.
Certain health conditions make you more susceptible to infection to include increasing age, smoking, chronic lung disease, malignancy and diabetes mellitus.
Legionnaires’ disease is treatable with antibiotics.
To following things can be done as preventive measures: cooling towers should be drained when not in use and cleaned to remove scale and sediment and biocides can be used to limit bacterial growth. Tap water should not be used in respiratory therapy devices.
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