Potting Soil Contained Legionella Bacteria

A T L A N T A, August 31 -- Federal health officialsThursday reported the first U.S. cases of Legionnaires’ diseaseapparently caused by handling potting soil.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saidthe bacterial illness occurred in three people in California,Oregon and Washington in May and June. One person died.

Two of the cases involved women, aged 46 and 77, who hadbeen potting plants a few days before their symptoms began.Laboratory tests of samples from their potting soil confirmedthe presence of Legionella bacteria.

The third case involved a 45-year-old California man whodied. His house was cleaned before investigators could obtain asoil sample.

“These patients presented with pneumonia-type symptoms andwere hospitalized,” said Dr. Michael Martin of the CDC’sNational Center for Infectious Diseases.

“The laboratory here at CDC is still doing more work to tryto specifically identify these bacteria and see if we can get adirect link between the bacteria that are in the soil and thebacteria that were from the patients,” he said.

The CDC urged local and state health officials to watch forand report cases of Legionnaires’ disease associated withLegionella longbeachae, the type of bacteria found in thepotting soil cases earlier this year.

“Studies in Australia and Japan have found thisassociation,” Martin said.

The CDC estimates that 8,000 to 18,000 people getLegionnaires’ disease every year and 5 percent to 30 percentdie. The disease is most often contracted by inhaling mist fromcontaminated water sources. It is not transmitted from personto person.

Legionnaires’ disease was first recognized in 1976, when anoutbreak of pneumonia occurred among people attending anAmerican Legion convention in Philadelphia. Symptoms of thedisease include fever, chills and a cough.

People with weakened immune systems and middle-aged andolder persons, particularly those who smoke or have chroniclung disease, are most susceptible to the bacterial infection.