Byline: JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
NORFOLK -- Illness has caused the death of a sailor aboard a Norfolk-based Navy ship, left one of his shipmates in critical condition and hospitalized others with pneumonia-like symptoms over the past five months.
The sailor who died was diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease.
The nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser South Carolina, which has been scoured by epidemiologists and other medical experts, went to sea Tuesday with its crew of 450 concerned that their ship might be the source of the maladies.
``I don't mind telling you, it's scary,'' one crewman said before the ship's three-day cruise began. ``There's not many who want to be on this ship right now.''
A battery of tests on the South Carolina's water, air conditioning, ventilation and heating systems, conducted since Thursday, so far has turned up nothing, and the Navy admits it is baffled at not being able to find a single cause for the sickness.
Water samples sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta also turned up no source.
Nevertheless, the Navy has become ``extremely cautious'' about the situation, officials said, encouraging any crew member with a fever of 102 degrees, or experiencing shortness of breath or coughing, to seek medical attention. Seven crewmen sought such treatment during the past week. All were diagnosed with relatively minor ailments, including bronchitis, and have recovered.
``I am told this is the cold and flu season and bronchitis is not a big deal,'' said John Singley, a spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet Surface Force in Norfolk.
``But if you catch bronchitis on the USS South Carolina right now, it is a big deal.''
The South Carolina's troubles began in October, when a 38-year-old lieutenant, said to be in excellent physical condition, was treated for pneumonia. He was sick for 10 days, but responded to antibiotics and recovered fully.
He tested negative for Legionnaires' disease, the potentially deadly pneumonia that gained its name when it swept through an American Legion convention at a Philadelphia hotel in 1976.
Caused by Legionella pneumophila bacteria, the disease is most likely contracted through water. Outbreaks have been associated with the water in air-conditioning cooling towers - the source of the Philadelphia episode - and the bacteria have been found in hot and cold water taps, showers, whirlpool baths, creeks, ponds and wet soil.
The disease appeared with a second sailor's illness.
Georgie L. Sponaugle, a third-class machinist's mate who lived aboard the ship, had just returned from a two-week vacation at his Maryland home when he complained of a bad cold to the South Carolina's medical office.
Sponaugle, 22, was hospitalized Nov. 29 with ``acute pneumonia.'' When he died six weeks later, on Jan. 7, his urine and blood tested positive for Legionella, the Navy said.
Last month a third sailor, the ship's physical fitness coordinator, fell ill. The 29-year-old chief petty officer is in critical condition at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center with ``acute pneumonia.''
Tests so far are negative for Legionella and he showed ``marginal'' improvement on Monday, the Navy said, but the sailor remains on a ventilator in the hospital's intensive care unit.
Last Friday, a fourth sailor - a 28-year-old, second-class petty officer - was admitted to the hospital with what doctors said was ``atypical pneumonia and sinusitis.'' He responded to antibiotics, however, and was released from the hospital after one day.
A fifth crewman was hospitalized on Sunday after experiencing flu-like symptoms of high fever and coughing.
``They are keeping him because he lives on the ship and it got underway,'' Singley said. ``They thought it was a better idea to keep him where the doctors can watch him under our new, much, much more aggressive treatment for those guys, than to return him to the ship where, under a worse case, he would have to be (medically evacuated) back here.''
Portsmouth Naval medical personnel, including the hospital's Environmental Preventive Medical Unit, have been working with CDC officials on the puzzle.
According to the CDC, isolated cases of Legionnaires' disease do not warrant an extensive outbreak investigation or quarantine. But the Atlantic Fleet, Singley said, ordered a number of actions to ensure the health and safety of its sailors aboard the ship.
In an unprecedented move, the Navy ``super chlorinated'' the water tanks aboard the South Carolina on Thursday, in an attempt to kill any bacteria that might be living in the system.
``Thursday night they filled these water tanks with 100 parts per million of chlorine,'' Singley said. ``Normally, drinking water is one-half part per million, so they really shot this up. Nothing could have survived that.''
Nonessential personnel were sent off the ship during the chlorination treatment, and doctors monitored the chlorine levels every four hours through the weekend. If the chlorine levels dropped, it would have been an indication that the chlorine was being used up in an attack on the bacteria.
``After four hours they still had 100 percent,'' said Singley. The next morning they had 99.9 percent.
Medical officers are confident that if any bacteria had been living in the ship's water supply systems they have been eliminated, he said. They treated all six water heaters and five shower sites. Every water pipe, shower head, hot water heater and ice machine was inspected and treated.
``They literally cooked that water system,'' Singley said.
The Navy noted that the illnesses aboard the South Carolina occurred among four different divisions, or departments, within the ship. Each of those used separate sleeping and eating facilities. Three of the individuals lived off the ship. The one who died lived aboard.
Late last week the Navy used its family support group to inform spouses and other family members about the illnesses.
Capt. Dave Brown, the ship's commanding officer, made his staff available to families, some of whom came to the ship for information during the weekend.
``The C.O. said he was pretty comfortable that everyone had good information,'' said Singley.
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FIVE HOSPITALIZED - ONE DIES
What happened: Five sailors aboard the South Carolina have been hospitalized since October with pneumonia-like symptoms. One has died, and has been diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease.
The ship has been scoured by experts, and so far a single cause for the sicknesses has not been found.
As a precaution, the ship's water tanks were cleaned to kill any bacteria, and any sailors with a fever, experiencing shortness of breath or coughing have been encouraged to seek medical attention.
