Second person dies after being diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease during Melbourne outbreak | Victoria – infosrk.club

A second person has died after being diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease during an outbreak in Melbourne’s west and north-west. The man in his 60s fell ill more than a week ago and was taken to hospital before he died on Thursday. This death follows another death, a woman in her 90s, who fell ill suddenly on Tuesday night and was taken to hospital where she died shortly afterwards. In an update on Sunday, Victoria’s chief health officer, Dr. Clare Looker, that seven more cases were reported, bringing the total number of known cases to 77 cases and seven suspected cases. Looker said authorities were seeing a decline in the number of cases identified, indicating that “the situation is stable”. “We may be seeing the end of everything,” he said. Legionella is commonly associated with plumbing, humidifiers, air cleaners, and air conditioning units, but it can become very virulent when it gets started in major water sources. The uprising began on July 26 and marked the worst uprising in the state in more than two decades. About 75 of the 77 confirmed cases and seven suspected cases were hospitalized. Authorities are investigating more than 100 cooling towers in the Derrimut and North Laverton areas – although Looker suggested it was possible the source of the outbreak was never found. “The information we have so far indicates that the source of the outbreak is likely connected to one cooling tower in the area,” said Looker. “Cooling towers are the focus of this study, as they are the most common cause of Legionnaires’ outbreaks.”