September 21, 2011: County Has Two Cases of Legionnaire’s Disease
Athens County, located in Ohio, has reported two cases of Legionnaire’s disease within the last week.
Chuck Hammer, administrator at the Athens City-County Health Department, stated that “we’re looking at this very closely. We’ve been aware of this since late last week.”
One of the cases reportedly involves a grad student at Ohio University. The other case includes an out-of-county resident who went to the O’Bleness Memorial Hospital after falling ill because it was the closest available possible.
An OU spokeswoman, Jennifer Krisch, confirmed Tuesday morning that an OU graduate student was diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease, but referred questions about the case to the Health Department.
The state health officials have been informed of the two cases and investigators are currently trying to find out if the two people diagnosed had any overlapping history, to suggest where they might have picked up the bacterium. “There’s a little detective work that goes on,” Hammer explained. He mentioned that just because the two cases were both diagnosed in Athens County does not necessarily mean the source of the infection lies within the county.
He did mention, however, that there has been a “small uptick” in reports of Legionnaire’s disease across Ohio recently.
