Barry-Eaton District Health Department (BEDHD) and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services are investigating 3 cases of Legionnaires’ disease (LD) associated with Bay Pointe Inn located in Barry County. The cases reported travel to Bay Pointe Inn (11456 Marsh Rd, Shelbyville, MI 49344) between March 2024 and June 2024.
BEDHD is working with Bay Pointe Inn to identify potential sources of exposure and mitigate risk of additional cases. BEDHD has notified all guests who have stayed between the dates of May 7th and June 5th of their potential exposure. Guests and hotel employees have been instructed to monitor themselves for symptoms of Legionellosis and seek medical attention immediately if they develop symptoms. BEDHD is working with the facility to perform an environmental assessment. Additionally, the facility has taken-action reduce the risk to current and future guests.
Action required:
- Healthcare providers should report probable, suspect, and confirmed cases of Legionellosis (Legionnaires’ disease or Pontiac fever) to the local health department as soon as possible.
- Per the Michigan Public Health Code MCL 333.2261, physicians and laboratories are required to report suspect or confirmed cases of legionellosis to the appropriate local health jurisdiction (LHJ) within 24 hours of diagnosis or discovery.
Action requested:
- Healthcare providers should consider LD when evaluating patients with community-acquired pneumonia:
- Ask patients about travel (including local travel), any healthcare visits, or possible exposure to other community sources of Legionella in the 14 days prior to symptom onset.
- Keep in mind that the initial presentation of LD may be similar to other respiratory diseases, such as COVID-19, and prompt identification of Legionella infection can inform antibiotic treatment.
- Diagnostic testing for LD should include both urinary antigen and culture or PCR of lower respiratory secretions before treatment is administered. Lower respiratory specimens should be collected even if antibiotic therapy has been initiated.
- Lower respiratory specimens (e.g., sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage) should be collected and frozen. It may be possible to perform additional Legionella testing on lower respiratory specimens even if they do not test positive by culture or PCR.
- Isolation of Legionella by culture or PCR is important for public health investigation.
- Molecular techniques can be used to compare clinical isolates to environmental isolates and confirm the outbreak source.
- Cultured specimens from patients who reported exposure to the facility under investigation should be retained for potential additional testing at the state public health laboratory.
Clinical Guidance for Legionella Infections is available on the CDC website at https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/hcp/clinical-guidance/index.html
Contact Information:
Please contact MDHHS Legionellosis Epidemiologist Jake Reese at (517) 331-5435 or reecej2@michigan.gov for more information or to answer questions.