News reports from Australia are indicating two people have now sadly died in an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the industrial west of Melbourne, centred on the Derrimut and North Laverton areas of the city.
So far, a total of 77 cases have been identified, of which 75 of those infected have required hospitalisation. The current investigation is focussing on around 100 evaporative cooling towers, although at the time of writing, no source of the outbreak has yet been found, with testing and disinfection work ongoing.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Clare Looker, speaking in an interview yesterday morning (as reported by ABC) said "We've definitely seen a decrease in the speed with which notifications are coming in and definitely a clustering of those symptoms and onsets from those earlier dates," she said.
This outbreak is the biggest to have occurred in the city since April 2000, where 4 people died amongst 125 cases of Legionnaire’s disease associated with an evaporative cooling system at the then recently opened Melbourne Aquarium.
Legionellosis is a nationally notifiable disease in Australia and the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that similar to Europe and the USA, Australia have about “10–15 cases detected per million population per year.”
Worldwide, of people “75–80% are over 50 years and 60–70% are male. Other risk factors for community-acquired and travel-associated legionellosis include smoking, a history of heavy drinking, pulmonary-related illness, immuno-suppression, and chronic respiratory or renal illnesses” according to WHO, these figures being very consistent with what we see in the UK.
The Summer is a time when we historically see increases in the number of cases of Legionnaires’ disease in the UK, so this outbreak is a further and clear reminder of the seriousness of what can happen if things go wrong. With over 35 years’ experience and industry leading accreditations in water and Legionella management how could we be helping you keep the right side of control?