Protecting families from contaminated food and water
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Protecting families from contaminated food and water
Posted in Legionella,Legionnaire's disease,Our Blog,Outbreaks & Recalls on November 6, 2025
State, local, and hospital health investigators search for the Legionnaires’ disease source at The Christ Hospital. This hospital, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, has had two cases of Legionnaires’ disease in patients over the past six weeks. Between the middle of September and the end of October.
Hospital staff, patients, and their visitors have serious cause for concern.
Mortality rate for Legionnaires’ disease is high. In a health care setting. It is even higher.
As the search for the Legionnaires’ disease source at The Christ Hospital continues, let’s explore how Legionnaires’ disease spreads and where this germ could be hiding in a hospital.
One patient developing Legionnaires’ disease is troubling. Two patients becoming sick with this type of infection within six weeks of each other. Now that is a major issue.
With 555 beds, this hospital could spread illness to hundreds of vulnerable patients if the source of Legionnaires’ disease is not found and cleaned up.
Did these patients become sick with this atypical pneumonia illness at the hospital? Or did they get it somewhere else and the illness was discovered during their stay?
State and local investigators will be looking at the places these patients have been in the weeks leading up to their illnesses. If there is additional overlap, other than The Christ Hospital of course, the investigation will expand.
“While the exact source of exposure for these individuals is currently unknown, The Christ Hospital immediately initiated additional environmental testing protocols to identify any potential hospital-related sources to ensure maximum levels of safety,” The Christ Hospital Health Network wrote in a statement.
The hospital claims that the risk to the public remains low.
What is Legionnaires’ disease anyway and how bad is it?
As investigators continue to search for the Legionnaires’ disease source at The Christ Hospital, it is a great time to refresh our minds on this dangerous, life-threatening illness.
What is Legionnaires’ disease anyway?
Legionnaires’ disease as a type of pneumonia illness caused by a lung infection with Legionella bacteria. These rod-shaped germs have a single flagella (whip-like appendage) that they spin around like a propellor to move them through water.
These microorganisms typically live in natural water environments. Places like lakes, streams, and rivers.
It becomes a problem when a small amount of those bacteria makes their way into human-made water systems.
Quite a problem, in fact. Especially in a hospital.
A hospital, and most other buildings that have been compromised by this bad bug, are not usually located just off a lake, stream or river. So how do these germs traverse such distances to end up in a patient’s lungs?
These microscopic bacteria are quite light. So light that they can be picked up with evaporating water and carried by rain clouds.
Imagine that!
They can be deposited near cooling towers on tops of buildings. Enter the building water supply in small numbers. Or even spread from one infected cooling tower to a neighboring water system.
Once a water system is contaminated, several common structures and fixtures can aerosolize the bacteria into tiny particles where an unsuspecting person can breathe them in and become sick.
Legionella bacteria like wet, warm environments. To move to a human host, they must make it into the lungs.
Certain human-made water systems are better suited for growing and spreading harmful Legionella bacteria. But anything that generates a mist or spray can spread bacteria.
Common sources of Legionnaires’ disease include:
In addition to cooling towers and hot water tanks, there are other Legionnaires’ disease sources in hospitals. Ventilators, humidifiers, and other breathing devices.
Only specialized laboratory tests can accurately diagnose Legionnaires’ disease.
Legionnaires’ disease is often confused with other pneumonia-like illnesses, as many symptoms overlap for both conditions. It is even indistinguishable from typical pneumonia on a chest x-ray.
Urine antigen tests and PCR tests for sputum samples can accurately diagnose Legionnaires’ disease.
If you have stayed, worked, or have visited The Christ Hospital, there are a few symptoms to look out for.
While severity of symptoms can vary from person to person, symptoms to look out for include:
Other Symptoms may include:
Most people begin feeling sick between two and 14 days after exposure. However, it can take longer for symptoms to appear in some cases.
Not everyone who is exposed to Legionella bacteria will become sick. Most normally healthy individuals will not become infected. However, certain groups of people are at higher risk of infection if exposed.
Higher risk groups include:
Hospitals often treat many people in these higher risk groups. In fact, it is these issues that often send them to the hospital in the first place.
This is likely one of the reasons that Legionnaires’ disease is often more deadly in a hospital setting.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 20 people exposed to Legionella bacteria will become sick.
An unfortunate 1 in 10 will die. In a health care setting like this, the risk elevates to 1 in 4.
There are several reasons for this.
Those being hospitalized often have a decreased immune response. It is those illnesses, after all, that landed them in the hospital in the first place. They are more vulnerable to any number of illnesses floating around in a hospital. Including Legionnaires’ disease.
Additionally, breathing equipment can introduce harmful airborne germs directly into the lungs. Aerosolized water from a handwash sink in the room can send Legionella bacteria straight into the breathing systems. Giving the germs a perfect pathway into the lungs.
If you or a loved one has stayed, worked, or have visited The Christ Hospital and have become sick with Legionnaires’ disease you may have a legal case. An experienced Legionnaires’ disease Lawyer can help!
If you wish to pursue a legal claim for financial compensation to cover medical expenses, lost work, caring for a loved one, or other burdens associated with Legionnaires’ disease illness, The Lange Law Firm, PLLC has a Legionnaires’ disease lawyer that can help.
Legionnaires’ disease is a preventable illness. This type of illness spreads when lapses in required maintenance allow the growth of this harmful microorganism.
Call (833) 330-3663 or send us an email for a free, no obligation consultation. A member of our compassionate team will go over the details of your case.
By: Heather Van Tassell (contributing writer, non-lawyer)