Pittsburgh VA investigating source of Legionnaires' case
The Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System is investigating whether a veteran with Legionnaires' disease might have contracted the respiratory ailment at its University Drive campus in Oakland, a spokesman said.
VA Pittsburgh workers identified the Legionnaires' case on Friday but have not determined where the man might have contracted it, spokesman Mark Ray said. He said the veteran received outpatient treatment within the past couple of weeks at the University Drive complex, which has a history of the common Legionella bacteria that cause Legionnaires' disease.
Ray said parts of the facility where the veteran received treatment tested negative for the waterborne bacteria in recent routine tests. The VA is retesting those areas and requesting similar tests at the nonprofit veterans home where the patient lives, he said.
He said he could not identify the home, which provides housing for homeless veterans under a VA contract.
“You just want to make sure your system is completely safe. Obviously, we would like to exclude our system from being where he got it, but the most important thing is ensuring the safety of the systems,” Ray said.
He said the veteran arrived on Friday at the University Drive emergency department with respiratory symptoms but refused to be hospitalized, returning home instead.
The medical staff prescribed antibiotics and will follow up over the weekend to check on his condition, said Ray, who alerted several federal lawmakers to the development.
The Allegheny County Health Department is investigating and will review where else the veteran might have had contact with water, county spokeswoman Amie Downs said.
A Legionnaires' outbreak in 2011 and 2012 at the Oakland and O'Hara VA campuses sickened at least 22 patients, six of whom died, investigators found. A federal review last year identified failures in how the hospital system controlled Legionella and checked patients for Legionnaires', a severe form of pneumonia.
Adam Smeltz is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5676 or asmeltz@tribweb.com.
