Search goes on for source of
killer bug as first victim dies

Eight people remain in hospital but their condition is said to be improving.

No further cases have been identified since confirmation one of the 16 people who have contracted the disease had died in hospital.

The number of confirmed cases had risen steadily since news of the outbreak emerged last Tuesday. People can develop symptoms up to two weeks after
being exposed to the legionella germ.

All those affected are aged
between their late 40s and mid 70s.

The Health Protection Agency confirmed on Saturday that one of the patients had died but no further details were
released and officials are waiting for a cause of death from the coroner.

Three people had been discharged from hospital in Staffordshire over the weekend, leaving eight patients still being treated but their condition was described as “improving”.

Another patient transferred
to hospital in Leicester remains
 in a critical but stable condition.

A spokesman for University Hospital of North Staffordshire said: “Eight patients remain in hospital and all are in a stable or improving condition. Three patients were well enough to go home today and have been discharged.”

A spokesman for Glenfield hospital, Leicester, said: “We are treating a patient transferred
from the University Hospital
of North Staffordshire, confirmed with Legionnaires’ disease
who is in a critical but stable condition.”

No new cases of Legionnaires’ disease have presented themselves within the past 24 hours, health officials said.

The source of the outbreak has not yet been traced and the Health Protection Agency is working with the Health and Safety Executive, the NHS in Stoke-on-Trent
and the city council to try and find it.

Action taken so far includes identifying, sampling and disinfecting potential sources, such
as cooling towers, in areas
which the victims may have in common.

Local GPs have also been alerted to identify possible patients
who may be developing symptoms of the disease which affects the lungs, as well as a public
information campaign to make people aware of symptoms and risks.

Legionnaires’ disease is caught by breathing in infected water, such as that from poorly-maintained or designed air conditioning systems.

It cannot be passed from person to person and can be treated effectively with antibiotics when caught early.

Early symptoms include a “flu-like” illness with muscle aches, tiredness, headaches, dry cough and fever which can then lead to pneumonia.

The cases in Stoke-on-Trent follow an outbreak of the deadly bug in Scotland.

Earlier this month the Scottish Government confirmed a man suspected of having Legionnaires’ disease had died. He was the third person to have died since the outbreak began on May 23 in Edinburgh.

The man, who was in his 60s
and from south west Edinburgh, had been unwell for a period of time.

Officials have declared the outbreak over though some patients are still being treated.

Health chiefs in Scotland have said the number of confirmed and suspected cases stands at 101.

Investigations are continuing but the cause is thought to have centred on a cluster of cooling towers though no source has yet been clearly identified.

A number of companies have been served with improvement notices to clean cooling towers and make progress on disease
prevention but officials have stressed these did not mean the firms, which included a whisky distillery in the city, had been identified as the source of the disease.

[email protected]