Over 50 now thought to be affected by deadly Legionnaires’ outbreak

Cases increased to 24 by last night while a further 27 people are suspected to have the illness, Nicola Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament.

Of the total 51, 14 are being treated in intensive care.

The single death from the outbreak was named locally as Robert Air, 56, from the Seafield area of Edinburgh.

Ms Sturgeon said: “It remains the case that there is no identified link between these cases other than an association with the affected areas in the south-west of Edinburgh.”

Two people with Legionnaires’ were discharged from hospital.

The other patients were being treated for the disease either in general hospital wards or in the community.

Ms Sturgeon passed on her condolences to the family of the dead man and said the outbreak was the worst the country has seen since the 1980s.

She told MSPs at Holyrood: “In Scotland, we would normally expect to see around 30 to 40 legionella cases each year. Typically around half of these cases are contracted abroad, but we also see indigenous cases, and it is not unusual to see single sporadic cases of community-acquired legionella.

“Across Europe, outbreaks are not uncommon, with dozens of outbreaks per annum and thousands of cases.

“However, outbreaks of the size we are currently seeing here in Edinburgh are rare in Scotland - the last time we had an outbreak of this scale was, I understand, in the 1980s in Glasgow.”

She explained that Legionnaires’ disease was an “uncommon but serious form of pneumonia, caused by bacteria that are distributed widely in both natural and artificial water supplies”.