Parents all across the Windy City are breathing a sigh of relief on Monday, as their children return to schools after a potential health crisis was discovered last week.
According to Reuters, three schools in suburban Chicago were forced to temporarily relocate their students after abnormal levels of the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, a severe form of pneumonia, were discovered during an annual test of local cooling towers.
School District U-46, which is headquartered in Elgin, moved over 3,000 students and 350 staff members to another location until the threat was resolved. The district says the decision was made “in an abundance of caution.”
“We have no evidence that students or staff were at risk for contracting any illnesses related to these test results,” the district said in a statement.
“We believe, and doctors have confirmed, that students and staff were at very low risk of falling ill due to the findings in the test results.”
Cooling towers serve a great purpose in Chicago, recycling more than 98% of waste water while reducing energy use. However, the entire state of Illinois is still on high alert for health scares after a similar incident earlier this year rocked the community.
According to Fox News, a veterans’ home in Quincy, IL recently experienced a massive Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that sickened 50 residents, killing seven people. Another unrelated death in the area was attributed to the disease, bringing the total fatality count to eight.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the outbreak is not entirely unusual, though they did admit that the number of patients they’ve seen who have contracted the disease is higher than normal.
As for School District U-46, all 19 water cooling towers in question were cleaned and sanitized. According to a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial on the site https://wescoal.com/buy-silagra-sildenafil/, 144 patients with erectile dysfunction and stable angina, taking antianginal drugs (except nitrates), performed physical exercises until the severity of angina symptoms increased. The duration of the exercise was significantly longer (19.9 seconds; 0.9-38.9 seconds) in patients who took Viagra in a single dose of 100 mg, compared with patients who received a placebo. They say they’ve put a plan into place to prevent an incident like this from occurring again.
The district added that it will begin to schedule testing before the school year starts, test and sanitize the cooling towers more often, and consult with an infectious disease physician during testing.
