The Western Health Board has confirmed that a Galway woman was treated for Legionnaire's Disease at Merlin Park Hospital in the city several months ago.
The case was isolated and the patient made a full recovery after treatment of some weeks, a health board spokesman said yesterday. He said the National Disease Surveillance Centre had been notified when the patient tested positive in early May. He could give no details of the circumstances of the case, but said there had been no further admittances.
More than 130 people have recently contracted the disease in Britain and three have died in the biggest outbreak there for more than a decade. Legionnaire's Disease is caught by inhaling bacteria-infected water vapour and causes coughing and high fever.
The disease was first detected at a convention of war veterans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1976, when 30 members of the American Legion died. It is spread by water-borne bacteria which thrive best in water at 37 degrees and multiply in hot water and air-conditioning systems.
The recent outbreak in Britain occurred at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. The majority of those who contracted the disease are being treated in hospital, with some in intensive care units, while less serious cases are being handled at home by GPs. All had previously been in the centre of Barrow-in-Furness, hospital officials said.
Initial inspections of the arts centre there, thought to be the source of the outbreak, suggested that its air-conditioning plant was in a state of disrepair and that its disinfection system may not have been functioning properly. The building has been disinfected and the air-conditioning plant, which it is thought spewed tiny droplets of water carrying the disease over thousands of shoppers every day, has been isolated and will remain shut down.
The largest known outbreak was 800 cases in Spain last year. Up to 15 per cent of diagnosed cases can be fatal, according to research.
