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Latest Infectious Disease News<\/h3>\n
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MONDAY, Aug. 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> informed employees that office space it rents in the Atlanta area would be closed after Legionella<\/i>, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, was found in the buildings, the New York Times<\/i> reported.<\/p>\n Fortunately, no employees have been sickened.<\/p>\n Legionnaires’ disease is a respiratory illness that can be fatal in 10% of cases. Some experts have warned of the risk of Legionnaires when people return to buildings left vacant for months due to the coronavirus lockdown, the Times<\/i> said.<\/p>\n The bacteria can grow in warm, stagnant water that is not disinfected. The bacteria can waft through the air and be inhaled when toilets are flushed or faucets turned on.<\/p>\n “Legionella<\/i> is something that even though we’ve known about it since the 1970s or so, we’re still learning about it every day,” Caitlin Proctor, a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University in Indiana, told the Times<\/i>.<\/p>\n The CDC has guidelines to help prevent Legionella<\/i> from spreading as buildings reopen. But Andrew Whelton, an associate professor of civil, environmental and ecological engineering at Purdue, said that the guidelines are not specific enough.<\/p>\n “This is by design,” he told the Times<\/i>. “Generally, federal guidance that’s issued is generic, and what building owners need is prescriptive advice. It’s possible that these guidelines weren’t enough.”<\/p>\n It’s not clear if the buildings where the CDC closed its offices followed its own guidelines. The CDC said in a statement that “during the recent closures at our leased space in Atlanta,” the agency, working with the General Services Administration, had “directed the landlord to take protective actions.”<\/p>\n The affected building will remain closed until the problem is fixed.<\/p>\n “That the CDC can’t prevent Legionella<\/i> contamination in their buildings is a sign that we all need to be proactive about this issue,” Proctor told the Times<\/i>.<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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