A handful of visitors at the famous Disney park have come down with a deadly respiratory infection called Legionnaires’ disease. It turns out that the source may be the two cooling towers in the theme park. Cooling towers are a major source of the disease because they provide two things the bacteria need to thrive is a place to grow and a way to enter people’s respiratory systems. The disease is spread when people inhale water droplets that contain the bacteria and people who come down with the illness may experience fever, chills, a cough, muscle aches, and about one in ten will die but the disease can be treated with antibiotics. On Saturday, water in the towers tested positive for the bacteria that cause the disease, and the structures have been shut down.
