Hot tub display blamed Legionnaires' disease outbreak in North Carolina

Monday, October 7, 2019
Hot Tub display linked to Legionnaires' outbreak in North Carolina
Hot Tub display linked to Legionnaires' outbreak in North Carolina: Ali Gorman reports during Action News at 5pm on October 7, 2019.

FLETCHER, North Carolina (WPVI) -- North Carolina health officials think a hot tub display at a state fair was the source of a Legionnaires' disease outbreak that killed one person and made 124 others sick.

People started getting sick about a week after the Mountain State Fair in Fletcher, near Asheville.

They believe people breathed in Legionella bacteria from mist from the bubbling water in the hot tubs inside the exposition center.

Health teams found some bacteria in a hot tub.

Investigators also found the bacteria in a sink in the women's room, but that couldn't have infected so many people.

State health teams are working with the CDC to track down the cause.