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Oct. 18, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

FOUR GUESTS DIAGNOSED: Legionnaires' disease reported

Bacterium found at Polo Towers

By ANNETTE WELLS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
ON THE WEB
For more information about Legionnaires' disease: cdc.gov/legionella/
patient_facts.htm

LEGIONNAIRES' DISEASE SYMPTOMS
• similar pneumonia
• a high fever
• chills
• cough
• muscle aches
• headaches
DETECTION
• Chest X-rays, tests on sputum (phlegm), blood or urine to find evidence of the bacterium in the body.

SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Southern Nevada Health District issued a warning to past and present guests of Polo Towers on Friday that a bacterium common in warm water that causes Legionnaires' disease was discovered in the resort's water system.

The health district, along with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, took water samples at the resort recently after four guests were diagnosed with the disease. Two of the guests were diagnosed in August and September, and two others in 2007, health officials said.

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    • All four guests of the resort diagnosed with the sometimes deadly disease were treated successfully, they said.

    "This does not affect the municipal water system,'' said Jennifer Sizemore, a health district spokeswoman.

    Legionnaires' disease takes its name from an outbreak at the Pennsylvania American Legion convention held at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia in July 1976 blamed for 34 deaths.

    It is a waterborne disease, a serious form of pneumonia caused by the legionella bacterium. People get it when they breathe in mist or vapor that has been contaminated.

    Symptoms of the disease include fever, chills, dry cough, muscle aches, headache, and loss of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting. The symptoms usually begin two to 14 days after exposure, health officials said.

    The disease can cause death in 5 to 30 percent of cases.

    Sizemore said the health district has posted a letter on the resort's Web site and notified past guests about the issue. She said the district and the resort are working to fix the problem.

    Simon Crawford-Welch, president and chief operating officer of Diamond Resorts International, said the bacterium was confined to four rooms out of 800 and that the organization is working with the health district.

    He said Diamond Resorts, which operates 150 resorts in 17 countries, has closed and secured those rooms and informed guests and employees by mail about the disease.

    Crawford-Welch said the resort has also set up toll-free telephone numbers to answer guests' questions. The resort's numbers are 866-309-7318 or 702-261-1000.

    In addition, the resort has initiated super chlorination treatment on its hot water system and is working with a third-party engineer water systems company to survey Polo Towers.

    This isn't the first time the legionella bacterium has been found at Polo Towers.

    Several of the resort's floors were closed in 2001 after the bacterium was found in several cooling systems. During that outbreak, three guests who had stayed at the resort were diagnosed with the disease.

    The CDC estimates that 8,000 to 18,000 people get Legionnaires' disease in the United States each year.

    Anyone who has stayed at the resort in the past 14 days and developed symptoms is urged to contact the health district.

    For more information call 759-4636.

    Contact reporter Annette Wells at awells@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.

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    carol wrote on November 18, 2008 08:11 AM: They are selling specials at Sams club, for 147 dollars you get to stay at polo towers for 2 nites and get 4100 master card when you arrive, and the added benefit they did not mention is, you can also take your chances gettin legioaires disease


    stevo wrote on November 09, 2008 09:09 AM: WHY HASN'T THE POLO TOWERS SOLVED THIS PROBLEM SINCE THEY HAD AN OUTBREAK BACK IN 2001??????????

    THE SOUTHERN NEVADA HEALTH DISTRICT SHOULD SHUT THIS HOTEL DOWN UNTIL THEY FIX THE PROBLEM.

    MORONS.


    tleduc wrote on November 01, 2008 05:50 PM: I open the letter from the Director. It outlines the problems the hotel has been having with Legionnaire's disease and that the last two reported cases were August and September 2008. What? Now all of a sudden the air does not smell right and we feel as though we are about to be invaded by the body snatchers. My nose starts twitching and I am trying not to breath.
    I phone up reception and say I do want to stay here after all – they said they would arrange another hotel and would call us back in fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes are you joking we are not staying locked in this room 5 minutes with the air conditioning blasting out its potentially deadly carrying germs.
    No we were off mate. Re-packed and down to the lobby in 3 minutes flat. I went over to the desk and informed the intelligent looking desk clerk that he was in fact a dork and had misinformed us at the beginning! He said he did not know that the cases had been so recent as he had not read the letter. Well he knows now!

    It took over an hour for them to re-allocate our booking to the Monte Carlo across the strip and then they kindly gave us $5 to pay for the taxi. Which was nice.....

    I bought some mouthwash immediately as I now had a sore throat and every time I cough I keep wondering ---- Legionnaire's ???
    By the way we are not alone in our fears – when we arrived at the Monte Carlo, the check in clerk said that several other people had been transferred to them from the Polo Towers.


    Glass Houses wrote on October 18, 2008 03:58 PM: Zero. If you don't like Vegas please leave. I love that people move here knowing what the place is and then whine and moan about what a terrible place we live in. I have been here my whole life, and am proud to be so.


    2zero wrote on October 18, 2008 03:34 PM: "What happens in Vegas...."

    except...viruses, bacterium, lice, crabs, bed bugs....what we call going away gifts.

    what stays is your money; possibly your dignity, maybe your sense of morals...it is all good fun "adult play", god bless america.


    Viva Las Vegas wrote on October 18, 2008 03:32 PM: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!


    5150 Dave wrote on October 18, 2008 08:26 AM: What about all the hotels with BED BUGS!! Far more common than you know....

    62 degrees this morning... nice