Two more cases of Legionnaire's disease confirmed in Edinburgh

Two more cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been confirmed in the Edinburgh outbreak.

As a result the total number of people affected has risen from 89 to 91, with the number of confirmed cases increasing to 44.

On Monday, one of the people who has been confirmed as contracting the disease spoke to STV News.

Gordon Erasmuson from Gorgie in Edinburgh is on antibiotics after being diagnosed 11 days ago. The 59-year-old is one of 12 people seeking legal action over the outbreak.

He said: "A week prior to the diagnosis I had flu-like symptoms, pain in my legs, shortness of breath, and then I started vomiting and had diarrhoea. It was pretty horrendous. At one stage I started hallucinating, I went delirious."

Mr Eramuson was in hospital for one day and is now recovering at home. He has consulted a lawyer about possible legal action over the outbreak.

He said: "I was fairly angry at having contracted this, probably through just having an open window and I just felt someone should be held responsible for this."

Two people, including 56-year-old Robert Air, have died from Legionnaires.

Of the cases being treated in hospital seven are in intensive care and 18 on general wards in addition to 19 cases being treated in the community and 38 discharged from hospital.

Experts say that infection control measures have been effective and that the outbreak is under control, with the two new cases having been ill for some time.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "I am pleased to see that the number being treated in intensive care has not increased. However, these people remain critically ill and NHS Lothian are continuing to provide expert, round the clock care."

Dr Duncan McCormick, chair of the Incident Management Team and Consultant in Public Health at NHS Lothian, said: "The number of confirmed cases of Legionnaire’s disease in Lothian has risen by two in the last 24 hours.

"This does not mean that these new patients have been newly infected with Legionnaire’s disease, but are still part of the original outbreak and tie in with the expected incubation period of between two and 14 days. We will continue to monitor services and overall the numbers of people seeking treatment or with concerns has fallen in recent days."

The Health and Safety Executive and City of Edinburgh Council are continuing their investigations into the possible source of the outbreak.

Three companies have been served with improvement notices by the HSE out of a total of six sites were investigated.

Chemical firm MacFarlan Smith Ltd and North British Distillery Company Ltd in the west of the city and National Museum of Scotland in the city centre are required to make improvements to their premises.

Related articles

People who read this story also read