The
Southern Nevada Health District is investigating two possible cases of the
dreaded medical malady Legionnaires’ Disease that happened six
months apart at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
The
first was in December of last year and the second was in June of this year. People
can contract Legionnaires’ Disease through exposure to water or mist containing
Legionella bacteria.
“We
are aware that Southern Nevada Health District is presently investigating two
cases of Legionnaires’ disease reported by guests who stayed at Caesars Palace.
We are fully cooperating with the investigation, and the most recent
environmental testing did not detect Legionella bacteria,” said Dayna Calkins,
a spokesperson for Caesars Palace.
The
good news is that most healthy people are able to fight off the disease without
even knowing they have it. It has symptoms similar to a common cold but it
varies in severity. It is estimated by the World Health Organization that only
about 0.00015 percent of people per million get the disease.
Eighteen
of 19 tests of the Caesars Palace water system came back negative. Remediation
efforts by the hotel to mitigate the one positive tests have been implemented.
“Caesars
Palace maintains a robust safety program to minimize the potential for the
Legionella bacteria to survive in the water systems at its property that meet
or exceed industry standards. In addition, we immediately took further steps to
remediate the presence of any trace amounts of Legionella bacteria relating to
the two instances being investigated by the Southern Nevada Health District,”
Calkins said on behalf of the hotel.
“We
are confident in the integrity of our systems and the safety protocols we
rigorously follow,” Calkins added.
The
disease is most
prevalent in hotel swimming pools.
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