Legionnaires' disease bacteria found at hotel; 1 guest died

ST. LOUIS -- The bacteria that cause Legionnaires' disease were found in rooms of a hotel in a popular Missouri tourist town associated with Mark Twain, and health officials said Tuesday one of three people who contracted the disease after staying there has died.

Missouri health officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched an investigation last month of the Best Western on the River Hotel in Hannibal. The hotel sits a block from the home where Mark Twain spent his childhood, and sites connected to the author attract about 500,000 visitors to Hannibal each year.

The CDC took 40 samples Nov. 10. Samples from four rooms tested positive for Legionella bacteria, said Ryan Hobart, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. What caused the bacteria remains under investigation.