Tribune-Review reporters uncovered records showing that waterborne Legionella bacteria were found at a Pittsburgh VA hospital at least five years before officials admitted a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease occurred. The bacteria were detected in water lines in rooms housing critically ill patients. The Trib found no evidence the VA alerted patients to the threat. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced in November 2012 that a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the Pittsburgh VA Healthcare System from February 2011 to November 2012 had sickened some veterans. Later, under pressure from the Tribune-Review’s dogged reporting about the outbreak, administrators admitted that five veterans had died and 16 were sickened. The Trib used the FOIA to obtcords at the VA Pittsburgh’s University Drive campus. The records revealed that large colonies of Legionella bacteria were in the water in the hospital as far back as five years before the VA and CDC determined the outbreak began. This meant that far more veterans could have been sickened or killed than the VA was willing to acknowledge. When the Trib offered these supporting records to the CDC for further investigation, the agency charged with protecting the nation’s health refused to take them and said it was done with the matter. The Trib continued to probe. The newspaper revealed that the announcement in November 2012 was made after the VA regional director and the director of the VA Pittsburgh hospital received substantial performance bonuses. One of the victims died after the CDC connected one of the deaths to Legionnaires but before the VA Pittsburgh announced the outbreak. This outraged victims’ families, veterans’ groups and bipartisan coalition of Congressmen. The House Veterans Affairs subcommittee held a hearing in Pittsburgh. A regional task force was formed to address Legionnaires’ issues. Legislation was introduced to close loopholes identified by the Trib that showed the VA was not required to report a Legionnares’ outreak to state or county health officials. The Trib revealed that the VA Pittsburgh system failed to properly test the water, failed to test it on a routine basis, failed to conduct routine urine tests on patients that had pneumonia-like symptoms to determine whether they had Legionnaires’. Top VA Pittsburgh officials mistakenly believed that outbreaks could be limited to one floor or a section of the hospital when the bacteria was flowing in the water system that runs throughout the building.
