A foreign visitor has died and at least two other people have become sick after staying at a downtown Miami luxury hotel for which health officials blamed an unusual type of pneumonia called Legionnaire's Disease.

The Miami-Dade County Health Department said guests were relocated after a foreign tourist died and two others became ill.

An investigation this week revealed that the hotel had installed a water filter powerful enough to remove chlorine from its city-supplied water, a move that encouraged bacterial growth.

Dr Vincent Conte, the county's top epidemiologist, said the filter was meant to improve water quality.

Studies show this type of bacteria is not easily transmitted through simple person-to-person contact because water droplets must enter a person's lungs.

The disease kills an estimated 5 to 30 percent of those it infects.

The first patient was a European man who visited the hotel in September; another European man contracted the disease in November and third was a European woman.

"The hotel is examining and doing everything to fix this matter. The hotel is working as closely as possible with health department,'' said Bruce Rubin, a hotel spokesman.