Public Health Wales has confirmed it is concentrating its investigation into the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease around seven people in Rhymney.
Dr Gwen Lowe, chair of the Outbreak Control Team and Consultant in Communicable Disease Control for Public Health Wales, said: “Legionnaires’ disease cannot be passed from person to person. We therefore investigate places people have been to, where they may have come into contact with a source of infection.
“On a precautionary basis, we are investigating people who live in, or have visited, a large geographical area over a long time period. However, this means that some of the cases we are investigating are likely to be sporadic with no links to other cases. It is also possible that there may be more than one source of infection.
“This is a very complex outbreak. Our investigations show that there is no single building visited by all the people linked to the outbreak. The sources, or source, are therefore likely to be industrial processes such as cooling towers.
“Environmental health officers and Health and Safety Executive officials have visited and checked all the registered cooling towers in the area under investigation. They have also visited unregistered cooling towers. These investigations continue.
“We cannot confirm that any of the three premises which have closed are the source of infection.
“A team of more than 100 staff from 10 agencies have been working to find the source of the outbreak. We will continue to do so until we are confident that we have found the source and removed it.
“Legionnaires’ disease is a rare but potentially life threatening illness. It has a usual incubation period of up to 10 days so we are likely to see further cases of illness even after the source is removed.
“We are advising members of the public that there is no need to change their normal behaviour as a result of this outbreak. No one needs to avoid visiting the area concerned as the risk of contracting legionnaires’ disease remains low. If people are unwell and are concerned about legionnaires’ disease, they should seek medical advice.”
The following information is from the Public Health Wales website.
- There are 19 people with legionnaires’ disease identified as being linked to the outbreak. No new cases have been reported since 10 September.
- All 19 cases have required hospital treatment. One person – a 49 year-old female – with legionnaire’s disease died in hospital on the evening of Sunday 12 September.
- One further case of legionnaires’ disease is possibly linked to the outbreak and remains under investigation.
- There have been seven people with legionnaires’ disease who have been investigated to see if they were linked to the outbreak but who have now been excluded from outbreak investigations. Two of these have previously been reported to have died – a 70-year-old male and a 64-year-old female.
- The outbreak area is the corridor 12km either side of the Heads of the Valleys Road (A465) between Abergavenny and Llandarcy. People are linked to the outbreak if they live in, or have visited, this area in the two weeks before they fell ill.
- Investigations are focussing on a cluster of seven people linked to Rhymney.
- A further potential cluster of four people in the Cynon valley is being investigated.
- The other eight people have various links and connections across the outbreak area.
- A Prohibition Notice has been served by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at a site in Dowlais,
Merthyr Tydfil . The notice was served as the cooling towers were not being operated in accordance with the Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) on “The control of Legionella bacteria in water systems” issued by HSE. The Prohibition Notice resulted in the cooling tower and site being immediately shut down until the tower was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected in accordance with the ACOP. The cooling tower has since been cleaned and disinfected and therefore the notice has been complied with and the company is able to restart work.
- Following contact by environmental health officers, a company in the
Rhymney Valley
- A second company in the
Rhymney Valley
- None of the three sites has been confirmed as the source of the outbreak.
- HSE has inspected all registered cooling towers and evaporative condensers in the
Merthyr Tydfil , Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney area, to assess the operation and safety of systems that have the potential to proliferate Legionella. In total, 10 registered premises were visited.
- Three Improvement Notices were served on companies running registered premises requiring them to further improve their operation of their systems.
- Another three premises with cooling towers and/or evaporative condensers that were not registered with the appropriate local authority were identified and visited.
- Any action taken by HSE has been to ensure that all cooling towers and evaporative condensers in this area are well managed and any potential risks controlled.
- In addition, local authority environmental health officers have ensured that samples have been taken from a number of sites to try and identify whether the legionella bacterium is present. Results are not yet available for many of these sites.
- HSE and local authority environmental health officers (from all authorities involved) have also visited more than 100 other workplaces in the area as a further means of attempting to identify the source. During this process, the HSE issued another Improvement Notice to improve the management of a process. These checks are continuing.
- Information has been gathered on the people with the disease to identify where they have been at times when they may have caught the infection.
- The Outbreak Control Team has gathered meterological data for the areas affected.