City and state health officials are investigating the water and heating and cooling systems at the Stadium Place senior housing complex on 33rd Street today after one person died and four others have confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease, the Baltimore City Health Department has announced in a press release.
"We are saddened and praying for people who are affected with this disease," says Mitchell Posner, executive director of the non-profit Govans Ecumenical Development Corporation, which built the four apartment buildings on the site of the old Memorial Stadium beginning in 2000. He says city and state health department officials are on site now, but as of 2 p.m. had not found the source of the disease.
City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, whose 14th Council District includes the apartments, says the health officials were only surveying possible sources today, and will return to run the actual tests tomorrow. "We don't know if it's here, or someplace off campus that these residents all attended," Clarke says, adding that she plans to meet with residents and interim City Health Commmissioner Olivia Farrow tomorrow at 11 a.m. to answer questions about the disease and ways to avoid contracting it.
Legionnaires' disease is thought to spread mainly by breathing tiny droplets of contaminated water. Symptoms include fever, chills, muscle aches, and coughing.
According to the city health department, between 8,000 and 18,000 nationwide are hospitalized with Legionnaires' each year. There were 31 cases in Baltimore City last year, and 25 so far this year. City Health Department spokesman Brian Schleter declined to give further details about the Stadium Place outbreak and referred a reporter to the press release, which states, "To protect the privacy of the residents and the residents' families, personal details about the cases, including name, age and gender, will not be released."
Posner says the city Health Department called yesterday to tell him four residents and one non-resident had Legionnaires' disease. He says it had been suspected before that, but declines to say how long. An internal City Hall e-mail obtained by City Paper says residents were told last week to see their doctors if they developed symptoms.
The Stadium Place apartments house about 380 older adults, Posner says.
