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A patient of the Boston VA Healthcare System has been diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease, officials said Friday.
The person was treated in VA hospitals in Brockton, Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury, and water is tested at each location, said VA spokesman Pallas Wahl in Boston.
The tests should determine if the disease was contracted in one of the hospitals. The results should come back between one and two weeks, the authorities said.
"By being good stewards," the system looks at all the "points of contact" of the patient, as well as any water sources they may have come into contact with, Wahl said by phone Friday night.
According to Dr. Katherine Linsenmeyer, an epidemiologist associated with the VA Boston, Legionality is a bacterial disease transmitted by water and not "person to person". More cases of the disease are reported in the summer, as the temperature of the water increases in the pipes.
For the average person, the disease is similar to pneumonia, but for older patients and people with weakened immune systems, the disease is more severe and has a higher mortality rate, said Linsenmeyer.
The VA did not disclose any information on the patient's condition.
The confirmation of the case at the VA in Boston comes after a recent outbreak of legionellosis in New England.
From June to August, 14 people were diagnosed with Legionnaires in New Hampshire. The cases were linked to an outbreak in Hampton.
Rhode Island health officials said Friday that three cases had been confirmed in a Providence retirement home, the Associated Press reported.
Jackson Cote can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @jackson_k_cote.
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