NEW YORK (AP) -- Legionnaires' disease has killed three people at two suburban senior citizens' facilities within the last few days, health officials said. Two others are sick with the lung disease.
CDC's Page on Legionnaire's Disease
Two people died of the illness at Sunharbor Manor, a nursing home in Roslyn Heights, state Health Department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond said. The Suffolk County Health Department's chief deputy commissioner, Dr. David Graham, said a person who lived at the Sunrise Assisted Living facility in Smithtown also died of Legionnaires', and two other Sunrise residents have been hospitalized.
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Legionnaire's, a form of pneumonia, is caused by a bacterium that occurs naturally in water. It can be fatal in rare cases, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. An estimated 8,000 to 18,000 cases occur nationwide each year, and outbreaks aren't uncommon in health care settings, as people with weakened immune systems have the most susceptibility to the disease.
Graham said it wasn't unusual to see a case or two per month in the Long Island county, but clusters of cases in individual facilities aroused his concern.
Health officials were working to determine the source of the outbreaks. Sunrise spokeswoman Meghan Lublin said it wasn't clear whether residents contracted the illness at the facility, and Sunharbor administrator Mel Hitt said water tests for Legionnaire's bacteria came back "normal.''
Still, Sunharbor has suspended the use of showers and whirlpool baths, he said. Residents were being allowed to have sponge baths or use bathtubs without whirlpools. The air conditioning system has been cleaned, Hitt said in a memo to residents and families.
Sunrise has hired environmental consultants to test and treat its water and air conditioning systems, Lublin said. Test results are expected next week.
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