Initial test results suggest the water system at the Jewish Home of Eastern Pennsylvania is probably not the source of the Legionnaires’ disease that sickened a resident this month, the facility’s director said.
Preliminary laboratory tests on the building’s water by an independent company came back negative this week for the Legionella bacteria, Executive Director Mark D. Weiner said Friday. Final results are expected in about two weeks after more sophisticated testing.
“That is a constructive sign to get a negative back at this point,” he said.
A resident of the Jewish Home, a 173-bed long-term care facility in Scranton’s Hill Section, was diagnosed with Legionnaires’ on June 4. The disease is a serious form of pneumonia, or lung infection, caused by breathing in water droplets contaminated with Legionella germs.
Although the preliminary lab results are encouraging, Weiner said, it also means officials still have not identified the source of the bacteria that made the resident ill or even whether the resident was exposed at the Jewish Home or at another location. The Legionella bacteria is generally not spread by person-to-person contact.
“We are working with the (Pennsylvania) Department of Health to sort that all out,” he said.
The Jewish Home tested other residents of the facility, but there have been no additional cases of Legionnaires’ identified, Weiner said.
In the meantime, the Department of Health-required protocols that the facility instituted after confirming the initial diagnosis, including the use of bottled water, are still in effect, he said.
“We have all the protections in place and we’re following the guidelines of the state,” he said.
Without addressing directly the status of the Jewish Home, health department spokesman Nate Wardle said in an email that state health officials monitor situations where potential cases of infectious disease are present “until final testing shows no further sign of the disease.”
Weiner, who arrived at the Jewish Home 10 months ago, acknowledged Friday he erred when he told The Times-Tribune on June 6 that all of the families of residents had been notified about the Legionnaires’ case.
While the home prepared a letter that it mailed to families and staff members after confirming the illness, many of the recipients did not get the letter until after the newspaper’s story appeared June 7. Weiner said he had about 10 calls from unhappy family members.
In the future, if the home needs to get in touch with family members immediately, a notification will be emailed, he said.
“That is a good lesson we learned,” Weiner said.
Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9132