West Chester U. Worker Contracts Legionnaires' Disease

By Justin Udo and David Madden

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) - A West Chester University employee has tested positive for Legionnaires' disease. An e-mail sent to students, faculty and employees confirms a worker came down with Legionnaires a little over 3 weeks ago.

The University says as soon as they found out the employee had the disease, they tested the staff member's work space as well as other campus buildings.

They say the employee's workplace was negative for Legionella, but they found a higher-than-acceptable level of the bacteria was discovered at a number of locations around the campus. The bacteria was found in cooling towers at eight buildings, including the Main Hall, two science centers and the student union.

The university is now working with a firm to kill the Legionella bacteria.

"The University contacted a firm and they immediately came out and did remediation," University spokeswoman Pam Sheridan said, "and they will come back and test them again."

The Chester County Health Department is being kept in the loop as an outside remediation firm addresses the issue. West Chester's in the middle of summer sessions. They've also hosted camps for kids. Sheridan says no schedules were altered because of the problem. The Chester County Health Department has also been kept in the loop.

Thirty-one people in New York have contracted this disease since July 10th. Two of them died.