Orillia cooling tower shut down amid Legionnaires’ disease outbreak

Orillia’s Rotary Place cooling tower has been closed as the local health unit investigates a cluster of Legionnaires’ disease cases.

There have been nine reported cases of the illness, which is a type of pneumonia, according to Charles Gardner, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit’s medical officer of health.

“It is caught from the environment – it isn’t spread person to person,” Gardner told Global News.

“By far the most common cause of outbreaks or clusters is from cooling towers of very large buildings that become contaminated and overgrown with the Legionella bacteria.”

The Rotary Place cooling tower in Orillia was shut down, as recommended by the health unit, after test results came back on Thursday that indicated there were higher than normal levels of Legionella bacteria at the site.

While there’s a higher than average presence of Legionella bacteria at the Rotary Place cooling centre, officials have still not discovered the source.

“It’s important to note that when we find Legionella in a system, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ve found the source,” Gardner said.

“In order to know that for sure, we have to do genetic typing of the Legionella growing in the tower to see if it matches with the genetic profile of Legionella found in the cases. We don’t have that yet.”

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“The most common location that all of the cases have been to is the downtown core of the city.”

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Gardner said it’s important to know that Legionnaires’ disease can carry as much as three or more kilometres from the site, depending on wind direction.

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The onset of the last case was late September, Gardner said. The nine people infected, all over 50, have all been hospitalized — some of whom required intensive care.

At this time, the health unit doesn’t have advice for people about changing their behaviour, Gardner said.

“We do advise that people seek medical attention if they develop worrisome symptoms.”

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Legionnaires’ disease presents with a cough and high fever, and develops into shortness of breath, change of consciousness level and confusion, Gardner added. People can eventually develop renal failure, and it can progress to the point of requiring intensive care and ventilator support. In severe cases it can lead to death.

“It occurs far more commonly in older people, people above the age 50, people with pre-existing medical conditions and smokers,” Gardner said.

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Residents, however, are still able to use Rotary Place.

“At this time it is safe for people to attend events and programs at Rotary Place while the building’s water cooling system is being cleaned and disinfected,” Gardner said.

According to the city, all municipally-owned cooling towers were proactively disinfected as of Tuesday. Orillia also has a routine maintenance program for its cooling towers.

The health unit will conduct another test at the Rotary Place cooling tower on Sunday.

Gardner said there hasn’t been a cluster of Legionnaires’ disease in the area in over a decade.