Legionella scare in Sydney
According to the Leader, Health Authorities were quite about the number of buildings in St George being tested for Legionnaire’s disease.
Air-conditioning cooling towers were being examined in the Kogarah and Rockdale municipalities after two residents contracted the infection.
A man in his early 40s and a woman in her 70s are being treated for the illness in St George Hospital.
The woman was in a serious but stable condition on Monday. The man was listed as being stable.
Legionnaire’s is an infection of the lungs (pneumonia) caused by Legionella bacteria.
It can live in water sources including some air-conditioning systems. The disease can occur when people have breathed in mist from a contaminated cooling tower. The South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service expect to have results of the tests today.
Its public health unit has also been piecing together where the patients had been during the incubation period.
The pair was believed to have contracted the disease between the last week of March and the first week of April.
They were admitted to hospital last week.
Director of Public Health Mark Ferson said local emergency departments, GPs, pathology laboratories and chest and infectious diseases physicians had been warned to be on the lookout for any patients with pneumonia-like symptoms and to test for legionella.
”There have been two cases confirmed and, while this is not an unusually high number, both cases had onset dates around the same time and the patients all live in and frequent the same geographical area,” Professor Ferson said.
”As part of the investigation and response we are working with local council officers.”
Majority of people recover from the illness, however some can become very ill with pneumonia and may die.
A medical epidemiologist from the Public Health Unit, Philippa Binns, would not confirm which buildings had been tested, or how many.
She would also not be drawn on information received by the Leader that the male patient is an employee of a licensed premise in Kogarah which the female patient was believed to have visited.
”The point we do want to make is that people need to be aware of the symptoms and, if concerned, should go to a doctor to get assessed,” Dr Binns said.
Dr Binns said there tended to be more cases at this time of year when the temperature varied and cooling systems were turned off and on.
Councils are required to carry out regular maintenance and testing of cooling towers.
A spokesman for Rockdale Council said the outbreak was not in its area.
A spokesman for Kogarah Council said that there were 12 cooling towers in building towers in its municipality.
