Spain's Catalonia region reports 15 cases of Legionnaires' disease
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The authorities of Spain's Catalonia region said on Thursday that 15 Catalan retirees had been treated for Legionnaires' disease following a stay in a hotel in a southern Spanish town.
The retirees, all between 60 and 85 years old, had traveled to Almunecar, a town in the southern region of Andalucia as part of a package holiday. They had stayed in the same hotel between March 25 and April 12.
The first few cases were diagnosed in Granada in southern Spain and others were detected upon the pensioners' return to Catalonia.
The hotel was declared a "suspect establishment" afterward by health officials, who have taken water samples from the building's cisterns and an ornamental fountain.
A Granada government source said the hotel's water supply was the suspected source of the infection, adding that the local authority had ordered building to shut down on Wednesday evening as a precaution.
Officials said they were investigating whether the outbreak was linked to another which led to the death of a man in his home in Barcelona on April 13. The dead man's wife was also infected.
Legionnaires' disease was first discovered and named after a group of some 30 former servicemen who died from the illness during a conference in the United States in 1976. The deadly lung disease causes headaches, fevers, chills, muscle aches and pains and can lead to respiratory problems and pneumonia. http://english.people.com.cn/200604/21/eng20060421_260145.html
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The authorities of Spain's Catalonia region said on Thursday that 15 Catalan retirees had been treated for Legionnaires' disease following a stay in a hotel in a southern Spanish town.
The retirees, all between 60 and 85 years old, had traveled to Almunecar, a town in the southern region of Andalucia as part of a package holiday. They had stayed in the same hotel between March 25 and April 12.
The first few cases were diagnosed in Granada in southern Spain and others were detected upon the pensioners' return to Catalonia.
The hotel was declared a "suspect establishment" afterward by health officials, who have taken water samples from the building's cisterns and an ornamental fountain.
A Granada government source said the hotel's water supply was the suspected source of the infection, adding that the local authority had ordered building to shut down on Wednesday evening as a precaution.
Officials said they were investigating whether the outbreak was linked to another which led to the death of a man in his home in Barcelona on April 13. The dead man's wife was also infected.
Legionnaires' disease was first discovered and named after a group of some 30 former servicemen who died from the illness during a conference in the United States in 1976. The deadly lung disease causes headaches, fevers, chills, muscle aches and pains and can lead to respiratory problems and pneumonia. http://english.people.com.cn/200604/21/eng20060421_260145.html