The Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) has confirmed an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Christchurch.
Six adults have been hospitalised since the start of April, with the source of the disease tracked to the suburbs of Woolston, Ferrymead and Hillsborough.
The two men and four women were over the age of 49. They spent an average of six days in hospital and none required intensive care treatment.
Legionnaires is a severe type of pneumonia which hospitalises several people around New Zealand every year and can lead to death.
Symptoms can include a fever, chills, coughing, muscle aches, headaches, tiredness and loss of appetite.
The last reported case was 19 days ago and all six adults have been discharged from hospital.
At a media conference in Christchurch this morning, the board said Christchurch City Council officials are working with representatives from the air conditioning industry to ensure water-based cooling systems in an industrial part of Hillsborough are being properly maintained.
Canterbury Medical Officer of Health Dr Ramon Pink says the disease was linked back to at least one cooling tower which was involved in manufacturing. However, only one of the six patients was an employee of the business and the others were likely infected through some sort of contact.
Dr Pink is concerned the bacteria may have spread to other cooling towers and is urging businesses in the area to sample and treat their cooling systems and evaporative condensers.
The CDHB believed the spread was contained after four cases in April but decided to go public when two new cases cropped up in, after the original cooling tower was treated.
"The Legionella bacteria can live in water-based cooling systems and can become dangerous when airborne," Dr Pink says.
"Businesses with these systems need to regularly sample and, where necessary, treat them to prevent the bacteria from circulating."
Dr Pink believes the risk to the public is very low but admits the spread is unseasonal.
"The real take home message is that there is a particular demographic who are more vulnerable to infection," he says.
"It's the over-50 age group, those with comorbidities of a variety of other illnesses.There are some long-term care facilities in that area, we've talked to them about this cluster just to make them aware."
Rodger Wyatt, a service manager at Battie Air Conditioning, has been helping the board contact local businesses about the risk. So far all have been cooperative.
"We came up with quite a cluster of servicing companies that had the potential [for infection], we contacted all of them and we've had quite a bit of feedback and it's all been positive," he says.
The manufacturer involved could have been affected for a variety of reasons, he said.
"They're sometimes subject to poor advice, sometimes it might be financial decisions, it could be a raft of reasons, but probably not doing anything to the letter is possibly going to contribute to it."
Legionnaires' disease spreads through the inhalation of bacteria, and has been associated with the cooling systems in office buildings and potting mix.
Older people, smokers and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible.
3 News
source: newshub archive
