25 Nov, 2004 Cindy Tumiel

San Antonio Express-News

Bexar County recorded six cases of Legionnaires' disease between August and October, two to three times more than what usually is seen in a year and setting off a detective hunt to track the source of the water-borne illness.

But so far, health officials have no evidence suggesting all six people got sick from the same source, said Roger Sanchez, epidemiologist with the Metropolitan Health District.

Most of the infected people had other medical problems that put them more at risk for infection with the legionella bacteria, Sanchez said.

He said four of the six were cancer patients, something that leaves people with suppressed immune systems and makes them more susceptible to infection with the legionella bacteria.

"Finding the source of this is extremely difficult," Sanchez said.

Legionnaires' disease is the most severe form of legionella infection and is characterized by pneumonia. The bacteria grow in water and are fairly common.

Most healthy people exposed to the bacteria do not become ill. But people who already are sick, particularly those with compromised immune systems, are more at risk.

Legionnaires' disease got its name in 1976, when a mysterious outbreak of pneumonia occurred among people attending an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Later, the bacterium causing the illness was named legionella.

The six recent local infections included several people who had been at Northeast Methodist Hospital before becoming ill, Methodist Healthcare spokeswoman Palmira Arellano said. But water tests showed no evidence of legionella in the water supply there.

Tests at other Methodist facilities did find a suspicious organism in the water system serving Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital, she said.

Arellano said susceptible patients at that hospital, as well as the nearby Methodist Hospital, were put on sterilized bottled water last week while the hospital water system was heated, then flushed in a procedure to kill any bacteria.

"We know it's out in the community, and with the possibility of the organism being there, we decided it's better to do the right thing for the very sickest patients," she said.

Further tests are planned to make sure the organism is gone before patients resume using hospital tap water, she said.

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