On July 14, 2017, the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health sent Health Advisory #137 to health care providers, hospitals and other health care facilities. The state said it had more cases of Legionnaires’ disease than expected in May and June 2017.
Legionnaires’ disease is a type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria. The advisory said patients usually had pneumonia on a chest X-ray, with cough, fever, muscle aches and chest pain. Many patients needed hospital care.
What the state asked of doctors
- Use the preferred tests: a urine antigen test and a culture of respiratory secretions on selective media.
- Collect sputum or lung wash samples from every suspected case before antibiotics start.
- Report cases to the local health department. State rules required a report within one week. During this period of closer tracking, the state asked doctors to report all suspected cases and clusters at once.
Local health department staff were asked to look into each possible case. They were to collect the date the illness started, how it was diagnosed, any work or health care exposure, and travel in the 2 to 14 days before symptoms began.
West Virginia issued another advisory on Legionnaires’ disease in November 2018. See Health Advisory #152: Cluster of Legionnaires’ Disease in Northern Panhandle.
This guidance is from July 2017. It is kept here as a record and is not current advice. Check current guidance from the CDC or your doctor.