More Testing For Legionnaires’ Disease Bacteria Planned

Health officials are expected to perform additional testing this week at a northeast Missouri hotel where the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease was found.

Three guests who stayed at the Best Western on the River Hotel in Hannibal became ill, and one of them died, though health officials have not confirmed that the death was due to the disease. The hotel is in the Mark Twain Historic District of Hannibal. State health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention performed testing last month.

Hotel owner Aswin Patel told WGEM-TV that chlorine treatment was used to clean the affected building, one of two that houses guests at the hotel. That building remains closed. A second building remains open because no traces of the bacteria were found there.