6 years, 5 months ago by Scott Hardy
Want Rauner Administration to review Home's water management system
Illinois's United States Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth have sent a letter to Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner wanting answers about two new cases of Legionnaires' disease at the Illinois Veterans' Home in Quincy.
Our news-gathering partners at KHQA-TV report that in the letter, the Democratic Senators expressed their "serious concern and disappointment" over the two new cases, calling it an "outrage" that the disease has appeared for the third year in a row at the Vets Home. They call on the Rauner administration to start a review of the Home's water management and Legionella-specific prevention plan. They went on to call the new outbreak at the home "an embarrassment", despite the state spending over 5 million dollars to improve the Home's water treatment system. They also say that it's "troubling" that a source for the cases has not yet been found. The water system was installed after 12 residents died, and over 50 became ill during a Legionnaires' outbreak in 2015.
The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs disclosed the new cases in mid-October, saying that one of the residents is now dead, but had a "complex medical issue aside from Legionnaires'".