Florida health officials have confirmed 14 cases of Legionnaires’ disease in connection to an Orlando gym in an email exchange with a state senator, according to local media reports.
Newsweek reached out to the Florida Department of Health (DOH) by email outside of normal business hours on Saturday morning for comment.
Why It Matters
Legionnaires’ disease is a severe version of pneumonia that derives from a bacterium known as legionella that is usually contracted from infected water or soil. Older adults, people with weaker immune systems, and people who smoke have a higher risk of contracting the infection, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Symptoms include headache, muscle ache, and high fever in the initial phase, followed by coughing, which can bring up mucus or even blood, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, diarrhea, and confusion or other mental changes. If left untreated, the disease can be fatal.
The disease does not spread from person-to-person, but outbreaks can occur if the bacteria makes its way into a building’s water supply.
Legionella also causes Pontiac fever, which is a milder illness similar to the flu that usually clears on its own.
What To Know
The cases were confirmed in an email exchange from the Florida DOH with state Senator Carlos Guillerm Smith, a Democrat, saying that they were due to a “gym exposure” without naming the facility, according to Central Florida Public Media.
Some reports have tied the cases to a gym in Ocoee where members reported having cases of Legionnaires’ disease, but the gym had submitted nearly two-dozen tests from a variety of facilities, such as showers, heaters, fountains, and sinks, that came back negative for any trace of legionella.
Channel 9 WFTV first reported on the cases and the resulting communications. A Florida DOH spokesperson told the outlet that information gathered in epidemiological investigations is confidential.
WFTV identified the gym as Crunch Fitness, which told the outlet that it had closed off parts of the gym “out of an abundance of caution” while conducting the tests through “certified third-party specialists.”
The outlet also reported a smaller outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease occurred in 2017 when the building previously was an LA Fitness. Crunch said that when it acquired the building, it spent millions renovating and remolding, including an update on aquatic systems.
What People Are Saying
Alex LeBeau, an exposure scientist, told local news station WESH 2: “A lot of times, we deal with isolated cases, it’s one case here, one case there. When there’s more than 10, 15, then it becomes an outbreak…If you think about a gym, there’s not a lot of spaces where you could be exposed to it. You know you have the showers, again the spas, maybe it’s an indoor heated pool.”
Dr. Rajiv Bahl told WESH 2: “If you have Legionnaires, you’ve been exposed to it, your symptoms occur within one or two days after getting exposed to the bacteria. Now those symptoms commonly include symptoms of pneumonia, which is that cough, congestion, but it’s going to be a little bit more of a serious form.”
What Happens Next?
The Florida DOH will continue to investigate the origin of the outbreak while attempting to limit public concern of a wider issue. People who have already contracted the disease will continue to receive treatment, with no deaths yet reported in connection to this outbreak.
