CDC Reports that LTC the Overwhelming Source of Legionnaires' in Healthcare Facilities

Legionnaires' disease tends to be more common and deadly within post-acute care facilities than others — and providers need to do more to reduce the risk to residents.

Researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently conducted a study finding that 76% of Legionnaires' cases reported in 2015 could be traced to healthcare facilities. Of those cases, 80% were linked back to long-term care facilities, followed by 18% at hospitals and 2% to both.

Eighty-eight percent of Legionnaires' cases that year were reported in patients older than 60, the CDC said. About 25% of patients in healthcare facilities who contract legionnaires' die from it. That's two-and-a-half times the rate of all who contract the disease, which comes from inhaling water containing Legionella bacteria.

According to an article in McKnight's:

“Legionnaires' disease in healthcare facilities is widespread, deadly and preventable," CDC Acting Director Anne Schuchat, M.D. said during a press conference. “People can inhale the bacteria from small water droplets from showers, water therapy spas, baths, cooling towers, decorative fountains and medical equipment, like respiratory therapy equipment.”

The report comes three days after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a memo to surveyors explaining that healthcare providers soon will be expected to have policies in place to reduce the risk of Legionnaires'.

Marc Siegel, M.D., told providers to monitor patients with pneumonia for Legionnaires', and to keep their facilities sterile, according to MedlinePlus.

“This is all about improper maintenance, improper sanitation and improper sterilization, and a vastly underreported problem,” Siegel reportedly said.

Legionnaires' disease is a severe, often lethal, form of pneumonia.  Like many diseases, it presents greater risk to populations likely to reside in skilled nursing facilities, such as:

• People 50 years or older;
• Current or former smokers;
• People with a chronic lung disease (like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or emphysema);
• People with weak immune systems or who take drugs that weaken the immune system (like after a transplant operation or chemotherapy);
• People with cancer;
• People with underlying illnesses such as diabetes, kidney failure, or liver failure.

The fatality rate of Legionnaires' disease has ranged from 5% to 30% during various outbreaks, but "Hospital-acquired" Legionnaires' has a fatality rate of 28%.