Greensburg nursing home tested after resident contracts Legionnaires’ disease

Redstone Highlands in Greensburg continues to implement emergency procedures after a resident tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease last week.

The skilled nursing facility is using bottled water and suspending showers until it receives test results, said John Dickson, CEO and president. Results are expected soon.

“We take the health and safety of our residents as a No. 1 priority, which is why we implemented emergency procedures to minimize further risk,” Dickson said.

The resident was taken to Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg on May 21 for an unspecified illness. A blood test “identified that there was a potentially positive result regarding the Legionella bacterium,” Dickson said. A sputum culture also was taken.

“This is an isolated situation, and it only involved one person,” he said.

The resident, who Dickson said has been at Redstone “for a while,” has since recovered and returned.

Redstone Highlands’ Greensburg campus is on Garden Center Drive, off Route 66 north of the city’s downtown.

The 77-bed facility instituted emergency procedures upon learning of the positive test result and hired a company to test the water system. Such testing includes faucets, shower heads and “all the water to that facility,” Dickson said.

Legionnaires’ disease — a severe form of pneumonia, or lung infection — is contracted through exposure to Legionella bacteria in mist or water droplets, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In general, it is not transmitted from one person to another, according to the CDC.

Symptoms include cough, shortness of breath, fever, muscle aches and headaches as well as diarrhea, nausea and confusion, the CDC reports. Legionnaires’ disease kills about 1 in 10 people who become infected by Legionella.

The bacteria also can cause Pontiac fever, a milder illness.

The disease takes its name from an outbreak at the Pennsylvania American Legion convention held at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia in July 1976.

Redstone Highlands held a meeting for residents last week and notified all family members, Dickson said.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health also was informed and is available to assist as needed, spokesman Nate Wardle said.

There have been 136 confirmed cases of Legionella reported in the state so far this year, Wardle said.