CEDAR CITY (AP) — An employee of the North America Packaging Corp. manufacturing company has been diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease, the second plant worker in the last two years to become infected.
Gary Edwards, head of the Southwest Utah Public Health Department, confirmed the case and said the facility would be tested as soon as possible.
"It's not common, but it's (also) not alarming that there would be a case or two occasionally," Edwards said. "If we start to see numerous cases, then we have to start looking at the environmental situation."
Edwards would not disclose the name or any other information about the infected worker, saying only that the person is under 40.
Edwards said tests indicated the first plant employee diagnosed with the disease in October 2002 did not contract it at work.
The bacterium believed to be responsible is found in soil and grows in water, such as air-conditioning ducts, storage tanks and rivers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimates that 25,000 people a year in the United States get the disease, whose pneumonialike symptoms begin two to three days after exposure.