Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 10:07:39 -0500 (EST)

From: ProMED-mail <promed@promed.isid.harvard.edu>

Subject: PRO/EDR> Legionellosis, hospital - Australia (Melbourne)

LEGIONELLOSIS, HOSPITAL - AUSTRALIA (MELBOURNE)

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A ProMED-mail post

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ProMED-mail is a program of the

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[see also:

2000

Legionellosis, hospital - Australia (Melbourne) 20001222.2255

Legionellosis - France (Paris) 20001230.2300

Legionellosis - Spain: 2000 20001209.2163

Legionellosis - Spain (Vigo, Arbizu) (02) 20001026.1860

1999

Legionellosis - Italy (Turin, Milan) 19990730.1290

Legionellosis - USA (Maryland) (03) 19990713.1185

1998

Legionellosis - USA (New York) 19981017.2057

Legionellosis - Czech Republic 19980706.1267

1997

Legionellosis, 1995 - Denmark 19970228.0471

1996

Legionella - UK (2) 19960108.0027

Legionnaire's epidemiology (5) 19960106.0021

Legionnaire's epidemiology (4) 19960106.0020

Legionnaire's epidemiology (2) 19960103.0005]

From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>

Date: 6 Jan 2001

Source: The Age, 6 Jan 2000 [edited]

<http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/0101/06/A11938-2001Jan6.shtml>

Royal Melbourne likely source of Legionella

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It was likely that a man who died last month from legionnaires' disease contracted the Legionella bacteria while he was a patient at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, according to tests by the hospital. Hospital spokeswoman Allison Sloan said today that latest tests of samples from 2 of the hospital's air-conditioning cooling towers found several strains of Legionella bacteria, including the one contracted by the patient. [It is not reported what testing was done to demonstrate that the strains were identical. These tests vary in their ability to distinguish differences between strains. -Man. Ed. DS].

The hospital commissioned tests of the cooling towers on 12 Dec 2000, the date of the death of the patient, believed to have been aged in his 60s. The man, unnamed by authorities, was being treated for an unrelated condition when he displayed fever symptoms later diagnosed as legionnaires' disease. Tests showed small traces of the bacteria in two of the hospital's cooling towers, with further testing matching a strain of the bacteria to that contracted by the man.

"It makes it likely he did acquire legionnaires' disease while in (the) hospital," Ms Sloan told AAP today. She said there were more than 40 known strains of the disease. [A total of] 3 other people known to have visited the hospital were also diagnosed with legionnaires' disease. But sample testing has failed to match the strain of bacteria they acquired with the cooling tower water, Ms Sloan said. [Which makes one question whether the infections in these patients is related epidemiologically to the hospital cooling towers -DS] Two of those people had been treated and discharged from the hospital, while a third man remains hospitalized for an unrelated condition.

ProMED-mail

<promed@promedmail.org>

[Through the years ProMED-mail has posted hospital associated outbreaks of legionellosis. I hesitate to use the term nosocomial as not all of the cases were in patients hospitalized prior to onset of their illness, but in some cases just walking past the outside grounds of a hospital has been associated with legionellosis and therefore do not meet a purist definition of hospital acquired but rather meet the definition of a community acquired legionellosis where the contaminated source in the community happens to be the hospital's cooling towers. In this case, the outbreak was originally felt to be a hospital associated/community acquired outbreak, but it appears as though only one of the four cases, a nosocomial case, was truly associated with proximity to the hospital. - Mod.MPP]

mpp/ds