State Investigating Possible Outbreak Of Legionnaires At Mayor’s Hotel

By John Severance

SOCORRO -- Three people from South Carolina contracted Legionnaires Disease after staying in the Best Western Inn and Suites in Socorro, according to Raj Solomon, the project manager for the New Mexico Environmental Department.
Solomon also said there are four suspected cases in California and those people also stayed at the hotel.
However, whether they contracted the disease, which is a type of pneumonia, at the hotel remains to be determined.
The Best Western Hotel is owned by Socorro mayor Ravi Bhasker, also a medical doctor.
Bhasker said in an interview Wednesday, he did not think his hotel was the source.
“I have heard these people had visited other places together,” Bhasker said. “We don’t think we are the source. We closed the pool and the spa. And I am waiting on my consultant.”
Solomon said it may be possible there might be another source, but the one thing in common is that “they used the pool and spa at the hotel.
“The New Mexico Department of Health has to investigate this and since it is out of state they have to get information from the South Carolina Department of Health. We don’t have all the facts yet. It’s possible there could be another source. We just don’t know.”
The pool area and spa have been closed since May 7. A sign at the front desk said they have been closed for maintenance, but a sign in front of both pool doors said the facility had been closed by the Environmental and Health Departments.
“We worked in conjunction with the Department of Health,” Solomon said. “We took 15 water samples (back in April) and 1 of 15 was positive for Legionella, which causes Legionnaires Disease.
“The Health Department and Environmental Department jointly recommended to [the owners] that they hire an Environmental Health Consultant to sample the facility and to remediate it.”
Bhasker hired Evidenced Based Solutions, a consultant from Chicago.
EBSol retested the facility on May 26 and results should be in by the end of the week, Solomon said.
“I am waiting for my consultant to tell me what the next step is,” Bhasker said. “I am just the owner of the hotel. I will do whatever is necessary.”
EBSol president Gunner Lyslo said in a telephone interview Wednesday, “we still do not know if the hotel is the source. The preliminary data and I emphasize preliminary data (from the May 26 test) indicates the pool and spa are non detect (clean).
“The hotel ownership is committed to being proactive. We work closely with the state. What we recommend is far, far beyond what is recommended by state health officials.”
So if the people in South Carolina and California did not get infected at the hotel, where did they get sick?
“It could be anywhere,” Lyslo said. “Think about all the places that have water distribution systems. Legionella is very common organism and can colonize upward to 70 percent of all water distribution centers.”
Bhasker said he has a company on standby if the cultures come back positive for legionella.
The company would use high concentrates of chlorine (or hyperchlorination). According to Solomon, that is followed by a scrub and then the surfaces are treated with disinfectants. “It’s our validation procedure so it does not happen again.”
As for now, Bhasker said the pool and spa are being treated with their usual maintenance.
As for the people in South Carolina?
“They are doing fine,” Solomon said. “But one was in intensive care as of the last week of May. But he should be discharged by now.”
Solomon did not have any additional information on the suspected California victims.
Solomon said there have been two other Legionnaires outbreaks this year and both were in Santa Fe.
As for the Socorro outbreak?
“The three people who got sick all used the spa and that was potentially the likely source of the infection,” Solomon said. “We swabbed the rooms where the guests stayed and that was negative. There was nothing in the rooms. We narrowed it down to the spa or the pool which are both enclosed. We just asked for the pool and the spa to be closed.”
Solomon said he has had two face-to-face conversations with the owner.
“He wanted to know about what he had to do to clean up the problem,” Solomon said. “He was OK with closing the pool and the spa for however long it took to get the problem rectified. We both have the same goal which is to make it safe.
“He flew the consultant in right away. The consultant was very knowledgeable about the disease and about how it was spread and these kinds of outbreaks. It’s a work in progress.”
Solomon said when there is an outbreak there is an obligation by the owners of the establishment to immediately notify the Health and Environmental Departments. Solomon said he was unaware of any state statute that suggests the owners must notify the public.
The Legionnaires outbreak in Socorro first came to light on an Internet report out of Nashville, Ark., last month.
This came from a column from the Nashville Leader, written by its publisher Louie Graves.
“And now the scary news. I’ve told people that my trip West might be the best trip of my life. Now there’s an asterisk beside “best.”
Daughter Julie got a call, last week, from a woman at the Arkansas Department of Health who said she was calling on behalf of the New Mexico Department of Health.
“Were you in New Mexico in late April?” the ADH caller asked. Yes.
Did you spend the night in a Best Western Inn in Socorro? Yes.
Have you been to see a doctor, or have you had a bad respiratory infection? No.
The lady caller finally told Julie that some people who stayed at the motel during that time had developed Legionnaire’s Disease, a frequently-fatal pneumonia-like disease.
If you were going to come down with Legionnaire’s you would have already been hospitalized or dead, the caller said. But don’t worry, it’s usually only fatal to persons over 65.
Daughter allowed as how she was on the trip with her father, who was over 65. So she called me immediately to make sure I was still breathing.
It turns out that the persons who developed the disease had all taken advantage of the motel’s hot tub and spa facilities. We didn’t.
New Mexico had tracked Julie down because she used a credit card to pay for the motel.”
Legionnaires disease got its name in 1976 when many people who went to an American Legion convention in Philadelphia suffered from an outbreak of the disease, which is a type of pneumonia.
“We have a better handle on it,” CDC spokesperson Jeffrey Dimond said. “ Before it was a mystery, You had people from the American Legion coming down with severe respiratory problems. We had no idea what it was. Our scientists literally became disease detectives. They finally discovered what it was caused by and it was a brilliant move by our people. Now we know exactly what it is and our state departments know exactly what to do.”
According to the CDC website, between 8,000 and 18,000 people are hospitalized with the disease, however, many infections are not diagnosed or reported.
The symptoms of the disease are like many other forms of pneumonia. Signs include a high fever, chills and a cough. Other symptoms include muscle aches and headaches and chest x-rays are usually done to find the pneumonia caused by the bacteria. Symptoms usually start two to 14 days after being exposed.
The disease can be very serious and death can occur in five to 30 percent of the cases, but most cases can be treated with antibiotics, the CDC said.
According to the CDC website, most people exposed to the bacteria do not become ill. If you have reason to believe you were exposed to the bacteria, talk to your doctor or local health department. Be sure to mention if you have traveled in the last two weeks. A person diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease in the workplace is not a threat to others who share office space or other areas with him or her. However, if you believe that there your workplace was the source of the person's illness, contact your local health department.

State Investigating Possible Outbreak Of Legionnaires At Mayor’s Hotel