An emergency rule change requires Missouri health providers to report evidence of Legionnaires' disease within one day rather than the previous three-day period, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced this month, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The shorter time period will allow the state to respond more promptly and aggressively to potential outbreaks, Randall Williams, MD, the health department's director, told the Post-Dispatch.
Legionnaires' has sickened 812 people and killed 44 in Missouri since 2014. Cases nationwide increased by 500 percent between 2000 and 2017.
"DHSS finds that there is an immediate danger to the public health, safety, or welfare, which requires this emergency action," the emergency rule stated.