According to New Hampshire health officials, two cases of Legionnaires' disease have been identified in people who stayed at the Mountain View Grand Resort in Whitefield, N.H. One of those cases was a fatality.
As reported by WMUR in Manchester, Dr. Benjamin Chan, the state epidemiologist, said that the two people are not connected to each other and stayed at the hotel at different times. He said one patient became ill in October, and the other was diagnosed this month.
Legionnaires’ disease is spread through tiny water droplets in the air containing the pathogen, which can sometimes come from poorly sanitized hot tubs, but can also come from an HVAC system or even a water feature that is spraying droplets into the air.
Chan said the hotel's hot tub has been shut down, and investigators are testing the water system.
Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of pneumonia, and it can be fatal, especially to smokers and individuals with weakened immune systems.
Spa professionals will be reminded of the large outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that happened at the 2019 North Carolina Mountain State Fair in Fletcher, N.C. In that incident, four people died and 94 were hospitalized.
Hot tubs on display there were widely believed to be the culprits, but never absolutely proven to be the cause. By the time investigators began taking samples from the hot tubs from the display two weeks after the fair, the tubs had already been returned to their retail store, cleaned and put back into service.
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