Great news, everybody. General Motors‘ Warren Technical Campus engineering center is now Legionnaires’ disease-free. Odds are, you didn’t know Legionnaires’ disease had been found at GM’s tech center, since we missed it, and we read car news for a living. But yeah, that happened, and two workers got sick. Don’t worry, that’s been fixed now. We’re all good. Come October 1, the engineering center will reopen after testing showed its “full remediation” plan worked, Automotive News reports.
To be clear, there doesn’t appear to be any evidence that GM did anything specific to cause the Legionella bacteria to spread and infect its workers. As Crain’s Detroit reported earlier this month, GM closed the center on September 10, after it received word from the Macomb County Health Department that two employees had tested positive for the disease. At the time, they reportedly didn’t know if the engineering center was the source, but you also don’t mess around with Worse Pneumonia. As a GM spokesperson said in a statement to Crain’s:
Out of an abundance of caution, GM took immediate action to close the building and has ordered comprehensive third-party testing for the site. Our regular bacteria testing at Cole has not revealed any issues, and at this time, Cole has not been confirmed as the source. The health and safety of our employees is our continued priority.
Now, the building is set to reopen “after comprehensive testing, support from the Macomb County Health Department and third-party experts.”
Legionnaires’ disease found
GM initially said it expected to reopen the engineering center on September 22, but testing found the Legionella bacteria in some of its water, forcing the automaker to delay its reopening to get rid of the outbreak. As the automaker said in another statement:
Testing showed that cooling towers that supply HVAC for the building were negative for Legionella, though the bacteria was detected in a portion of the sinks and drinking fountains. The well-being of our employees remains our highest priority, and we are executing a full remediation plan.
According to Automotive News, the remediation plan included “draining, sanitizing and flushing the water systems, as well as replacing filters.” Hopefully, that’s all it takes to keep the bacteria out of the water supply, because Legionnaires’ disease definitely isn’t something you want to catch. Thankfully, though, the two workers who tested positive for the disease have since recovered, and according to GM’s spokesperson, no one else has tested positive.Â
As the Mayo Clinic explains, Legionnaires’ disease is a more serious version of the lung infection we call pneumonia. Early symptoms include headaches, muscle aches and a high fever, which then leads to a cough that sometimes brings up blood, chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and confusion. If not treated soon enough, it can cause lung failure, septic shock and acute kidney failure, but the good news is, it can be treated with antibiotics.
It’s also possible to contract a less serious form of Legionnaires’ disease, known as Pontiac Fever. According to the CDC, it’s named after Pontiac, Michigan, where it was first identified in 1968.Â
