BILLINGS — Health officials are investigating a Legionella outbreak connected to a Billings hotel after multiple guests became sick with Legionnaires’ disease.
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RiverStone Health announced Friday that at least three confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease over the past year have been linked to the Howard Johnson by Wyndham on Mullowney Lane, officially meeting CDC standards for an outbreak.
Recent water testing at the hotel found widespread Legionella bacteria throughout the building’s water system. RiverStone Health epidemiologist Taylor Cook said inspectors tested 40 locations inside the property, and 26 samples came back positive.
Related: Legionella outbreak identified at Billings hotel
“Towards the end of March, we had a confirmed case of Legionnaires’ disease come through as a reportable disease here in the state of Montana,” Cook said. “They were epi-linked along with two other cases from 2025 to the Howard Johnson Hotel, which officially puts us at outbreak status here.”
Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of pneumonia caused by inhaling contaminated water vapor. The bacteria commonly grow in warm water systems, including showers, hot tubs, spas, water heaters, and some air conditioning systems. It does not spread person to person.
"It is spread through aerosolized water, so in order to contract Legionnaires disease, you do need water to hit your face and then to either kind of swallow it, or just breathe it in," said Cook.
Symptoms can include fever, chills, coughing, shortness of breath, and gastrointestinal issues. According to RiverStone Health, the illness can become especially dangerous for older adults, smokers, and people with weakened immune systems.
“The hospitalization rate if you get Legionnaires’ disease is 94 to 96 percent,” Cook said. “And the fatality rate is right around 10 percent.”
Cook said inspectors found low levels of disinfectant and chlorine in the hotel’s water system, creating conditions where bacteria could grow and spread.
"It is a naturally occurring bacteria in fresh water sources," said Cook. "But once it gets into a building's water system, it can get into the biofilm, which is kind of like the perfect slime breeding ground for this bacteria.”
The hotel is now working with a third-party contractor to disinfect the water system through a large chlorine flush. RiverStone Health also requires the hotel to notify guests about potential exposure and implement a long-term water management plan.
"We've also required that they work with a third-party company to perform water remediation, which will be a large hyper flush of the entire water system with chlorine."
Health officials urge anyone who stayed at the Howard Johnson since mid-March to monitor for symptoms and seek medical attention if they feel sick.
For Deborah Meyer of Miles City, the outbreak announcement brought back painful memories.
Meyer says she stayed at the same Howard Johnson in 2015 with her family. After spending time in the hotel hot tub, she began feeling seriously ill days later.
“I started getting really sick, feeling like my chest was really heavy,” Meyer said. “Everything tasted like metallic.”
Her condition rapidly worsened. Meyer says she was eventually admitted to the hospital with a 108-degree fever before doctors diagnosed her with Legionnaires’ disease that had progressed to sepsis.
“They’re like, 'Well, you have what they call Legionnaires pneumonia,” Meyer said. “And it’s gone sepsis.”
Within hours, doctors told her she might not survive.
“And I’m like, 'Am I dying?'” Meyer recalled. “And he goes, 'Yes, you are.'”
Meyer says doctors inserted a tube through her neck to deliver antibiotics directly into her lungs in an effort to save her life.
“I had to sit there and let them cut my neck and put this tube while I was awake,” she said. “The doctors and nurses saved my life."
She spent eight days in the hospital and says the illness continues to affect her life more than a decade later.
“I can’t go to the hot tubs. I can’t go in anywhere where there’s indoor swimming pools,” Meyer said. “If I do, it’s like I can’t breathe. I feel like I have a weight on my chest.”
Now, as an outbreak investigation unfolds at the same hotel, Meyer said she hopes no one else experiences what her family endured.
"I just want them to make sure that it doesn't spread to any other people because it was a lot of trauma," she said. "I don't want to see anybody else suffer for things not being clean and taken care of.”
The Howard Johnson did not respond to MTN's requests for comment.
