DATE: Saturday, November 22, 1997           TAG: 9711220620

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Briefs 

                                            LENGTH:  117 lines

VIRGINIA

Central State fights

pneumonia epidemic

that has struck 36

PETERSBURG - State health officials are trying to combat a pneumonia epidemic that has struck 36 people over two months in Central State Hospital's forensic unit.

The unit houses mentally ill people charged with crimes or those found innocent by reason of insanity.

Forensic unit medical director Dr. Daniel O'Donnell said Friday that the recurring illness meets the medical definition of an epidemic - a rapid outbreak of a disease within a defined population of people.

Overcrowding has played a role in the spread and persistence of the disease, O'Donnell said.

Dr. Harold Carmel, medical director for the state mental health department, agreed. ``When patients are more crowded together, there is more of a chance of a condition like this spreading,'' he said.

The forensic unit, built in the early 1950's to house about 140 patients, has had about 195 during the outbreak, O'Donnell said. Each of its seven wards has a dayroom where patients congregate daily to watch TV, read or play board games.

The pneumonia is mild and has been successfully treated with antibiotics, said O'Donnell, who became medical director in September. Patients typically experience high fever and headaches for about a week.

``Everyone who has gotten sick has been identified very quickly and treated very promptly,'' Carmel said.

The state epidemiologist visited the forensic unit on Friday. ``We're going to be coming up with a decision on how to respond to these cases beyond individual medical treatment,'' Carmel said. A plan is expected early next week, he said.

The body cannot build an immunity to pneumonia because it is a bacterial disease, O'Donnell said. People can contract it over and over, and one forensic unit patient has had it twice.

``We have to keep it from recurring,'' O'Donnell said. Carmel and O'Donnell said the solution likely lies in reducing the number of patients in the forensic unit.

O'Donnell believes the pneumonia was brought in by one or possibly two patients admitted in the past two months, but he said there is no way of knowing for certain.

The incubation period for pneumonia is three to four weeks and outbreaks of eight or so cases have occurred every few weeks since mid-September. Eight people are sick now. A total of 27 patients and nine staff members have been stricken, O'Donnell said. Southwest

Explosion levels house,

kills man and injures wife

CHAMBLISSBURG - An explosion leveled a small house in a rural area and killed a man whose hobby was loading gunpowder into recycled shells in his basement. His wife escaped through a kitchen door.

The cause of the explosion had not been determined, but Bedford County Sheriff's Lt. Kent Rovey said it apparently was related to the storage of gunpowder.

``I was sitting on the couch and my windows started rattling,'' neighbor Mike Hammer told WDBJ television. ``I looked to my left and looked back in the woods and I saw a little bit of fire and then a big mushroom and a loud explosion.''

When firefighters arrived about 7:25 p.m. Thursday, 20 minutes after the main explosion, they could still hear shells popping in the rubble. ``The house . . . just wasn't there anymore,'' Rovey said. ``The only thing left was the foundation. If it was gunpowder, it was a heck of a lot.''

The explosion charred a car and truck in the garage attached to the basement and blew the garage doors 50 feet away from the house, a double-wide trailer.

Danny Lee Beckner, 50, was killed and Mary Martin Beckner, 47, suffered eye damage along with second-degree and third-degree burns on her arms, Rovey said. She was treated at Roanoke Memorial Hospital and released.

Mill Mountain once again

topic of debate in Roanoke

ROANOKE - Amy Dewease sat hand-in-hand with her boyfriend on a Mill Mountain overlook just after sunset, relaxing in the glow of a huge neon star and the magnificent expanse of city lights 1,047 feet below.

``We come up here to get away from that down there,'' Dewease, 17, said as she cuddled on a platform in front the 100-foot-high star, atop the mountain and sometimes visible from as far as 60 miles away.

What is happening down there is something politicians in the ``Star City of the South'' agonize over at least once every decade - the question of whether to commercialize the mountaintop park or leave it alone.

An advisory committee recommended Thursday that the city council make only minor improvements to the 535-acre public park, including adding a sculpture garden near the small zoo on the opposite side of the overlook.

If the city council concurs at its meeting Dec. 1, workers also will expand a brick rest room into a visitors center, remove sections of asphalt, build a picnic shelter and landscape a greenway and a concert lawn.

But it has been a process full of antagonism.

Some committee members wanted the city to develop the mountain's potential as a tourist attraction, rather than a traditional place to bring visitors for a quick trip up and down the mountain.

Ideas included a restaurant, a parking garage, hot air balloon rides, a shop for arts and crafts and a cable-car incline that would carry people to the mountaintop.

Other members wanted to improve the hiking trails and basically preserve the mountain so people won't run off the deer that regularly browse the woods, along with the occasional wild turkey, fox and raccoon.

There have been at least four consultant studies of the mountain since the mid 60s, including one in 1990 that led to no changes because most of the 500 citizens surveyed were pro-preservation.

``There has been enough studying,'' committee chairman Carl Kopitzke said Thursday. ``It's time we belly up to the plate and make a conscientious decision.''

Committee member Mary Elizabeth Kepley, who promoted the idea of a restaurant and an inn while opposing the sculpture garden, said the process was surprisingly emotional.

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