The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

MVH confirms 8th case of Legionnaires’ disease

Man, 68, drowns at Caesar Creek Lake
5/26/12
Water rescues prompt warning from health officials
5/25/12
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
5/25/12
Raleigh Trammell’s defense opens in felony trial
5/25/12
UD to move satellite campus to Dublin
5/25/12
> More headlines

By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer Updated 8:50 PM Friday, March 4, 2011

DAYTON — An eighth Miami Valley Hospital patient has tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease, and two more possible cases are pending test results, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday.

Two patients with the pneumonia illness remain hospitalized, spokeswoman Nancy Thickel said.

Hospital and Montgomery County public health officials on Tuesday confirmed one Legionnaires’ case — a Dayton man in his 70s — died Feb. 21, but the hospital said Legionella bacteria did not cause that death.

It’s not clear if the disease contributed to the man’s death. Hospital and public health officials have not identified him, citing patient privacy law.

The hospital has not yet received confirmation that Legionella bacteria contaminated the water system of its new 12-story hospital addition, called the “patient tower.” Another week could pass before those results are available.

The hospital instituted water restrictions in the patient tower for three days last week and disinfected the water system as a precaution.

The state Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both issued notices encouraging caregivers to test or recommend tests to anybody with pneumonia who in January or February worked at, visited or was an inpatient or outpatient at the hospital’s new patient tower two weeks prior to the onset of their pneumonia.

Share this article