Disease alert at hotel is under scrutiny

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2001 | 11:04 a.m.

Commissioner Erin Kenny this morning called a meeting of officials from the Clark County Health District and the Polo Towers to discuss why district employees distributed fliers about Legionnaires' disease to the property's guests.

Three former guests of the Polo Towers were diagnosed with the disease, which can be transmitted through a contaminated water source, health district officials said. The patients, who were diagnosed in February, March and May, have recovered.

"Polo Towers has been extremely proactive, and I think everybody is satisfied that the appropriate steps are being taken," Kenny said.

Health officials plan to release a timeline later today explaining why they took the steps they did, Kenny said.

Dr. Donald Kwalick, who heads the Clark County Health District, and Stephen Cloobeck, chief executive of the Polo Towers, were in Kenny's office just after 8 this morning. There was no discussion of whether the health district had overstepped its authority, as Polo Towers officials claimed Monday, Kenny said.

Cloobeck on Monday said that health district officials overstepped their bounds Saturday when they circulated the fliers to guests at his property on Las Vegas Boulevard.

County health officials told guests "they could die," Cloobeck said, causing unnecessary fear and panic. Paul Larsen, attorney for the Polo Towers, said he was investigating whether the health district had overstepped its legal authority. Larsen said he also hasn't ruled out filing a formal complaint.

"We're looking at all our options," Larsen said.

Jennifer Sizemore, spokeswoman for the health district, on Monday said her office has a responsibility to inform the public when outbreaks occur. Polo Towers' executives were asked to distribute the fliers last week, but they didn't comply, she said.

Cloobeck said Monday he was traveling last week and didn't know whether such a request had been made.

Cloobeck wanted to know why no one at the Polo Towers wasn't alerted when the first case of Legionnaires' disease was confirmed in February. Cloobeck said he doesn't know the identity of those who became ill and so far no former guests have informed him they have become ill.

Health district workers detected the legionella bacteria, which can sometimes cause illness, in several water sources at the hotel, including the water heater serving floors 6 through 19 of Tower 2. Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are helping trace the bacteria and devise a treatment plan.

Cloobeck voluntarily shut down the floors and relocated about 300 guests to other rooms and hotels. The property's two other towers have independent operating systems, and there is no evidence of Legionnaires' contamination, Cloobeck said.

The legionella organisms thrive in warm, stagnant water between 90 and 105 degrees. Legionnaires' disease, named for an outbreak at an American Legion convention in 1976, causes flu-like symptoms including fever, chills and a cough. Older adults with chronic lung disease, diabetes or compromised immune systems are particularly at risk. The disease is fatal in between 5 to 30 percent of the cases.

The disease is usually treatable with antibiotics. Between 8,000 and 18,000 people are diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease in the United States each year.