There are now 5 Plattsburgh, New York, residents who have been hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease, an often-fatal form of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria that often leads to sepsis. Four of the residents became ill in October, and one, in November. All 5 of the people sickened live near each other in the same complex on the west end of the City of Plattsburgh.
People can get Legionnaires’ disease by breathing in water mist contaminated with Legionella. The outbreak investigation began in the middle of October, but the source of the Legionella bacteria that has caused the outbreak has not been found.
After the diagnosis of the November, Clinton County Health Department and the New York State Department of Health started taking additional water samples from within the complex and in areas adjacent to and around the complex. The samples are being sent to the NYS Wadsworth Lab for testing.
Common sources of contaminated water include cooling towers, air conditioning units, showers, decorative fountains and hot tubs. With all of the victims of the outbreak living in the same apartment complex, it is highly likely that the contaminated water is somewhere in that complex.
With 4 cases in October and another diagnosed in the middle of November, it would appear that the other residents of the complex are at risk. The health department has provided them with updated information about Legionella pneumonia.
This fall, August and September 2016, a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Hopkins, Minnesota, sickened over 20 people. It took months of testing for the Minnesota Department of Health to determine that a contaminated cooling tower on the Citrus Systems building in Hopkins, MN was the source of the outbreak. Our law firm is representing over half of the people sickened in this outbreak and the family of the one person who died. Legionnaires’ disease lawyers at our law firm have filed a lawsuit. Fred Pritzker and Eric Hageman are our lead lawyers for these cases.