Two recent guests at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas have contracted Legionnaires’ disease, officials said Friday.
The guests who contracted the respiratory disease stayed at the hotel separately in March and April, the Southern Nevada Health District said.
Tests showed that Legionella, the bacteria that causes the disease, was present throughout the hotel’s water system, the health district said.
The hotel has disinfected its water system with chlorine, and remediation efforts continue.
Out of caution, the hotel is not booking guests into the affected rooms, the Rio said in a statement Friday.
It’s not clear how the health district linked the cases to the property.
Legionnaires’ disease can be contracted in showers, hot tubs, from faucets, cooling towers, misters, and decorative fountains, the health district said.
It’s a type of serious pneumonia that can sometimes be fatal. It’s rarely contagious.
Symptoms include a cough, shortness of breath, fever, muscle aches, and headaches.
Symptoms usually appear within 2 to 10 days after exposure to the bacteria, health officials said.
In 2011, a guest who had stayed at the Luxor Hotel died after contracting Legionnaires’ disease, the health district said.
The Rio is hosting the 48th World Series of Poker which began in late May and will run through mid-July.
