ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 5, 1996 TAG: 9611050060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
THE PULASKI COUNTY resident was already a patient at Carilion Radford Community Hospital.
Health officials confirmed one more case of Legionnaires' disease in the New River Valley on Monday, raising the total in the state's first-ever outbreak to 16 cases.
The newly confirmed case already was a patient at Carilion Radford Community Hospital, said Dr. Jody Hershey, director of the state's New River Health District.
The Pulaski County resident tested positive for the Legionella bacterium. He is one of two confirmed Legionnaires' patients in stable condition at the Radford hospital.
A third patient remains hospitalized in critical but slightly improved condition at Salem's Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Federal, state and local health officials are continuing their hunt for a possible source of the Legionella bacterium, which causes the potentially fatal form of pneumonia. Hershey said it might take weeks.
It took five months to pin down the suspected source of the July 1976 Philadelphia outbreak that killed 34 people and gave the disease its name. During that outbreak at the Pennsylvania American Legion convention, an estimated 4,400 people were exposed; of those, 221 took ill. Legionnaires' typically hits older people and those with weakened immune systems.
One man has died in the New River Valley outbreak. The 14 men and two women infected range in age from 42 to 86, with an average age of 68. Eleven of the 16 cases have come from Montgomery County. Two patients live in Radford, one in Giles County, one in Floyd County and one in Pulaski County.
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