UMC officials are hoping the third time's a charm after the medical center's water system was flushed with super-chlorinated water again Monday after two more patients there contracted Legionnaires' disease in the past month.

Legionnaires' disease, a type of pneumonia, has been diagnosed at University Medical Center nine times since January. Two cases in February, both involving female patients in their 50s, were fatal.

All afflicted patients were located within a new wing of the center which houses transplant patients, said Janet E. Bingham, a hospital spokeswoman.

"It is not at all surprising that UMC will see a larger number of cases because we are the only hospital in the entire state that transplants all major organs," Bingham said. "We have a concentrated number of patients who are susceptible to getting pneumonia."

The two latest cases appeared Sept. 4 and and Sept. 19 and involved a female bone-marrow transplant patient and a male heart patient, Bingham said. Both were treated with antibiotics and survived.

Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control initially identified Legionella, the bacteria which causes the disease, Aug. 5 after three UMC patients became infected, said Richard M. Mandel, chairman of the medical center's infection control committee.

The hospital performed the first super-chlorination Aug. 14 when water containing a concentration of 10 parts per million of chlorine was run through the wing's water system. The process was repeated Aug. 28 throughout the Arizona Health Sciences Center complex, 1501 N. Campbell Ave.

"We're doing everything we possibly can," Bingham said. "Legionella is a very finicky bacteria. Chlorinating your system once rarely takes care of it."

"You never ever will bomb this bug out of existence," she added, stressing however that the hospital's efforts thus far have succeeded to an extent.

"We do know that the chlorination process has been successful to a certain degree," she said. "But we are not there yet."

She also stressed other attempts to minimize the contamination.

"Because of the heightened state of awareness, everyone is being thoroughly and aggressively monitored," she said.

Legionella pneumophilia, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease, cannot be passed directly from person to person. Instead, it is generally inhaled into the lungs in a mist or through aerosol sprays contaminated with the bacteria.

Bingham said certain scenarios are necessary to contract Legionnaires' disease.

"You and I probably come in contact with it regularly because it is in the environment," she said. "You have to have the right patient profile to contract it."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that between 25,000 and 100,000 cases occur annually in the nation.

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