Atlanta hospital checking spike in cases
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ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta’s largest hospital is investigating an unusual increase in cases of Legionnaire’s disease.
Grady Memorial Hospital diagnosed four cases of the illness since January 1.
Officials are investigating the possibility that the disease spread through the hospital’s water or air. A hospital spokeswoman says preliminary test results should come back Monday.
Legionnaires’ disease is a bacterial infection that can cause potentially deadly pneumonia. The bacteria do not spread from person to person. Instead, people get it from breathing in contaminated mist or vapor. Tainted air conditioning systems or the contaminated whirlpool spas are some of the ways the bacteria can get in the air.
Officials say about 80 beds on the hospital’s 11th and 12th floors have been taken out of service pending tests of the hospital water system.
The four patients all had been treated at Grady. They were released, then got sick with Legionnaire’s and returned to the hospital, where they were diagnosed. None died. Grady is working with state health officials to check into all possible ways of how they the infection, said hospital spokeswoman Denise Simpson.
Grady — a public hospital in downtown Atlanta with about 950 beds — customarily sees only two or three cases infected with the bacteria each year.
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