Lisbon - The death toll from an outbreak
of Legionnaires' disease in a large Lisbon hospital doubled to
four on Friday, Portugal's health authority DGS said, but the
number of new cases being discovered appeared to subside.
The severe form of pneumonia has made another 40 people sick
since it was detected on October 31 at the São Francisco Xavier
hospital in Lisbon's western Restelo area and six were in
intensive care.
The peak of the outbreak was last Saturday when 13 new cases
were discovered, while in the past few days new cases amounted
to 3-4 a day and so far just one on Friday, DGS data showed.
Most of the 44 confirmed cases involved elderly people with
other chronic conditions - the disease's most common victims.
The prosecutor's office has launched an investigation of the
outbreak, which provoked a bizarre incident on Wednesday when
police interrupted the wake for one of the victims and took the
body for an autopsy.
The authorities said experts were still working to establish
the source of the bacteria.
In 2014, Portugal's worst ever outbreak - also one of the
world's largest - of Legionnaires' disease killed 10 people and
infected a total of 336 people. It was traced back to industrial
cooling towers at the Vila Franca de Xira area just northeast of
Lisbon. Most of those infected lived or worked in the area.
The disease is contracted by breathing in a mist or vapour
contaminated with the Legionella bacteria, which can grow in
cooling towers, showers, spas, hot tubs and other water sources.
It is not transmitted directly from person to person.
The illness is named after a 1976 outbreak at an American
Legion convention in Philadelphia, which killed 34 people.