SEM depicted a grouping Legionella pneumophila bacteria Photo Credit CDC PHIL
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A story we’ve been following for several days concerns the outbreak of Legionnaires disease in the South Western part of Edinburgh, Scotland. For earlier reports on this outbreak, and background information on Legionella and Legionnaire’s disease see:
The Legionella Outbreak in South West Edinburgh
Updating Edinburgh’s Legionnaires Outbreak
The latest update from NHS Lothian indicates that the source of the pathogen remains undiscovered, and an additional 13 cases have been identified over the past 24 hours.
Outbreak of Legionella in South West Edinburgh. Update - 08/06/2012 15:30
Update - 08/06/2012 15:30
Legionnaires’ outbreak update
Number of cases stands at 74
The latest reports from the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) on the Edinburgh Legionnaires’ disease outbreak show that there are now 28 confirmed cases and 46 suspected cases. This is an increase of 13 on the total numbers of confirmed and suspected cases.
As at 12pm today, of those cases being treated in hospital, 14 were in intensive care and 30 are on general wards.
A total of 15 cases are being treated in the community, ten have been discharged from hospital and one person has sadly died.
Four cases are being treated outwith the NHS Lothian area. A patient who was yesterday being treated in NHS Highland has now been transferred to Glasgow, one patient is being treated in the north of England, one in NHS Tayside and one in NHS Lanarkshire. At this stage all these cases are considered to be linked to the south west Edinburgh outbreak.
The ages of the confirmed cases ranges between 33 and 76, with more males than females affected.
As of 10pm yesterday, NHS 24 had received 492 calls to the dedicated helpline for Legionnaires’ disease.
The Health and Safety Executive and Edinburgh City Council are continuing their investigations into the possible source of the outbreak. The HSE has today served an Improvement Notice on one of the companies responsible for one of the cooling towers which is being investigated, although this does not mean that this tower has been identified as the source of the outbreak.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: “As we expected, we have seen a rise in the number of cases associated with this outbreak today. It is reassuring to see that ten people have now been discharged from hospital.
“NHS Lothian continues to be very busy and contact has been made with other health boards in case capacity at other hospitals is required.
“The fact remains that the risk to the general public remains low but anyone with concerns should contact their GP or NHS 24’s dedicated hotline on 0800 0858 531.
“I want to stress that this bacteria is not passed on person to person or by drinking water.
For more information on Legionella, the NHS has a 2-page fact sheet available which you can view at this link, or by clicking the graphic below.
