A community outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in South Wales, August-September 2010

Euro Surveill. 2010 Oct 21;15(42):19691.

Abstract

During August and September 2010, an outbreak comprising 22 cases of Legionnaires' disease was identified by the public health service in Wales. The cases are distributed over a wide geographical area in South East Wales. There are two space-time clusters centred on the upper Rhymney Valley and the lower Cynon Valley respectively. Epidemiological investigations are compatible with cooling towers in each location as the potential source, but environmental inspections were satisfactory and microbiological investigations are inconclusive.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Air Conditioning
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Community-Acquired Infections / epidemiology*
  • Community-Acquired Infections / microbiology
  • Disease Outbreaks*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Legionella pneumophila / isolation & purification*
  • Legionnaires' Disease / diagnosis
  • Legionnaires' Disease / epidemiology*
  • Legionnaires' Disease / microbiology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Risk Factors
  • Serotyping
  • Wales / epidemiology
  • Water Microbiology