Health officials are continuing to work to contain a Legionella outbreak at a Billings hotel through remediation methods.Watch health official talk about the outbreak: Billings hotel completes second round of treatment for Legio nella outbreakRiverStone Health CEO Jon Forte said investigators found the bacteria throughout the Howard Johnson by Wyndham water supply."We did an investigation of the hotel's water supply and found high concentrations of Legionella bacteria in various parts of the building," Forte said Wednesday."The problem exists within the entire water system across the building. And so prevention is the best thing that we can do," Forte said.Health officials were alerted after at least three confirmed cases of Legionnaire's disease a severe form of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacteria were linked to the hotel over the past year. Forte said they immediately worked with the hotel on a plan.Previous Q2 Coverage: Miles City woman shares survival story amid Legionella outbreak at Billings hotelLegionnaire's disease is 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."We contacted the building owners and provided them with a plan for remediation and an opportunity to make sure that they were notifying their guests who were staying there, that there was the potential for concern. But also that they were taking steps to remediate and clean the water system," Forte said.Forte said the hotel at 1345 Mullowney Lane was fully compliant, but after the first round of treatment, concerns remained."There were still concerning levels of bacteria within the water supply," Forte said.That led to a second round of treatment known as hyperchlorination."Driving a lot of chlorine through their water supply and making sure that they flush all of their pipes, their faucets, their showers, their pools, all of those potential areas where someone could be exposed to high levels of bacteria in the water," Forte said.Forte outlined the next steps."We will be headed back there, most likely by the end of the week, to resample the water supply and send water samples back out for testing to see where Legionella bacteria levels remain in the water system or if they're back down to safe levels," Forte said.Forte said not everyone who is exposed to Legionella will get sick."The largest risk for Legionella infection is for those folks who are elderly, immunocompromised or have a pre-existing lung condition," Forte said.MTN reached out to the hotel by calling, leaving a number at the front desk, and leaving a message with their media line. No one has responded.While testing is still underway, RiverStone Health expressed confidence in the remediation effort."We're fairly certain that we're not going to have additional folks getting ill from this particular instance as we've remediated the system and bringing bacterial levels down," Forte said. ...read more read less