Somehow 21 patients of the Pittsburgh VA Hospital were sickened and 5 of them killed by Legionnaires’ disease during 2011 and most of 2012 without any local, state or federal health official knowing that there was an outbreak. Ron Voorhees, acting director of the Allegheny County Health Department told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“Our goal is to catch things as they happen. Did we have all the information we should have? It’s a valid question. Between the Allegheny County Health Department and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, we should have noticed this.”
The Post-Gazette article goes on to list several reasons why no health authority caught the outbreak, but the primary problem appears to be with the Pittsburgh VA itself, its failure to properly report all of the cases and take corrective action:
- The Pittsburgh VA allegedly did not report all of the cases of Legionnaires’ disease into the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS), which facilitates electronically transferring public health surveillance data from the healthcare system to public health departments;
- The Pennsylvania Department of Health did not analyze hospital-acquired infections to look for outbreaks until the middle of 2012;
- There was a possible issue with the NEDSS questionnaire because the short version did not ask whether a disease was hospital related;
- Even if the CDC, which is the overseer of NEDSS knew there was an outbreak at the Pittsburgh VA, it can’t get involved unless it is asked to help.
NEDSS or no NEDDS, the Pittsburgh VA should have known there was a problem, reported the problem to the proper health authorities and taken action long before 5 people died from the severe pneumonia caused by Legionnaires’ disease. There is no excuse for letting an outbreak drag on for 2 years. Clearly, more needs to be done to prevent this severe form of pneumonia.