Seven Rio Legionnaires’ cases confirmed

Five months after an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease was reported at the Rio, the number of confirmed cases of the pneumonia-like bacterial illness among guests has risen to seven, with 29 more cases suspected, the Southern Nevada Health District said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, cleaning and testing of the hotel’s water system is continuing to ensure the disease has been eradicated.

That’s a normal timeline for a Legionnaires’

outbreak investigation, health experts say.

“In a situation like this, part of the process of these investigations on an environmental aspect is continued testing and monitoring,” said Robert Cole, the health district’s senior environmental health specialist.

Often the process, which includes precautionary disinfection of water systems, will continue for up to a year, Cole said.

The investigation began in June after two people who stayed at the Rio separately in March and April tested positive for the disease. The hotel’s Ipanema Court and Masquerade Village towers, on the building’s south end, were disinfected in early June.

RIO

challenges.

That time also gives them the chance to convince people who put their names on the petition to have their signatures removed.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria said 1,273 signature removal petitions have been received, but it is not clear how many of those are eligible to be counted. Gloria said the secretary of state’s office will make that determination. Whatever that number ends up being will be added to the threshold needed to force a special election.

As with the recall attempts of Sens. Joyce Woodhouse and Patricia Farley, it is unclear who is funding the efforts. There have been no publicly stated reasons for the recalls.

Neil and Claire Roth, who were two of the signers on the notice of intent to recall Cannizzaro, were present for the signature drop offs but declined to answer questions from a reporter. Ryan Hamilton, who works with the local GOP consulting firm j3 Strategies, also declined to answer questions.

Other recalls

The recall against Cannizzaro is the last of a trio targeting state senators

filed this summer.

The first targeted Woodhouse, D-henderson. The recall committee submitted enough signatures to force a special election, but the anti-recall effort filed a lawsuit Monday night claiming that more than 5,500 of the signatures submitted should be disqualified.

About 3,000 of those signatures came from people who were not eligible to sign, either because they were not a registered voter or did not vote in that race in 2016, the lawsuit says.

Recall foes also said more than 2,500 people submitted documents to the Secretary of State’s office to have their signatures removed from the petition, with some saying they were misled or believe their signature may have been forged.

The recall that targeted Farley, an independent, fell short of the needed signatures. Petitioners needed more than 7,000 signatures, but only turned in about 2,000.

Democrats have also filed a federal lawsuit that seeks to stop the recalls before any elections can happen. A federal judge set a court date of Nov. 29 for oral arguments in that case.

Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal. com or 702-383-4638. Follow @ Coltonlochhead on Twitter.