Don’t you just love breathing-in the clean, cool air in a building with an air conditioning system? Well, the 36 people who died and the 221 who were seriously ill at the landmark Philadelphia hotel would have told you, for a week in 1976 there was something in the air conditioning that didn’t feel right.

In July 1976, veterans were attending the US Bicentennial Convention of the American Legion. They suddenly started getting sick and running high fevers with pneumonia. No one could find a reason for this influenza like illness, and the only common factor seemed to be that they all went to a hotel in Philadelphia, called the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, which was hosting this event. It was immediately branded Legionnaire’s disease and great pressure was put on the government to find its cause.

Five exhausting months later, Dr. Joseph McDade a scientist from the Centre for Disease Control discovered that the culprit was a bacterium which we now know as Legionella pneumophila. It was found to be living in the cooling water of the Bellevue’s air conditioning system, and the tiny water droplets in the air released by the air conditioning infected the people, especially the seniors who visited the hotel.

This old school bacterium ‘Legionella pneumophila’ affects people with weakened immune systems. Legionella bacteria are commonly found in hot water springs or ponds in their natural environment, and create problems when they contaminate plumbing systems, hot tubs, shower heads, air-conditioning systems and medical respiratory devices.

Because Legionnaire’s disease resembles pneumonia and is hard to detect, it wasn’t discovered as a separate disease till the 1976 outbreak. However, cases of the disease have occurred in the past, and sadly, subsequently after being discovered.

• The worst reported case was in Spain in 2001, with over 800 suspected cases, out of which 449 were confirmed cases and 4 died.
• Another form of the disease- known as Pontiac fever, affected 95 people out of 100 in  a building in Pontiac, Michigan
• Around 550 cases have been reported in Britain over the last few years, and the rate is increasing every year.
• 180 people were affected, and 7 died after catching the infection through the air conditioning at Forum 28 Arts Centre in Cumbria, 2007.
• The council was fined £125,000 for breaching Health and Safety but cleared of corporate manslaughter
• On 21 July, there were reports that an elderly patient at the Dumfries Infirmary caught Legionnaires disease, mostly likely to have been cased by the infirmaries water supply.

The disease is rare, but can be fatal in anywhere up to 10 to 30% of cases. It has now been made a statutory regulation for all building managers to assess and mitigate the risk of Legionella.

Bellevue ripped out all their plumbing and air cooling systems and replaced them with new infrastructure but still ending up closing its doors. After all, no one would be able to forget an incident like that, and due to the lack of occupancy, it was subsequently sold off to the Hyatt Group.

This should be a reminder to all facilities managers to wake up to the threat of Legionella. If you are a facilities manager or building owner, you must take special care to ensure all possible precaution has been taken to prevent the disease. Getting advice on Legionella risk management would be a good start.