Disease Tie to Hospital Ruled Out; [ED 1 - Hospital Visits Link Ruled Out ]

Health authorities are ruling out a link between visits to Christchurch Hospital and nine cases of the potentially deadly legionnaires’ disease.

Canterbury Medical Officer of Health Dr Mel Brieseman said that although all those diagnosed with the potentially lethal infection in June and July had all visited Christchurch Hospital in the previous few months, the hospital was unlikely to be the source.

“These people had all been at hospital either as outpatients or inpatients, but at the ages of 60 to 90, that’s not uncommon,” he said.

There was not a particular ward or department common to all those affected, Brieseman said.

Nine people were diagnosed with legionnaires’ disease in Christchurch in June and July in the city’s first outbreak for 15 years. One man, Riccarton resident Ross Hern, 56, died from the infection on June 14, a month after he was admitted to hospital suffering complications from the disease.

Canterbury Health Laboratories clinical director of infection control Dr Mona Schousboe said the outbreak was a “real whodunnit”.

Christchurch Hospital monitored its environment for legionella bacteria “extremely closely” and there had been no sign of it this year, she said.

The hospital’s air-conditioning system was checked monthly. Swabs were also taken from the hot- water system and showers in each ward at least once every six months.

Staff from Community and Public Health were continuing to follow up individual cases and check for legionella bacteria in the homes of those affected.

Aranui man Allain Green spent most of July in Christchurch and Ellesmere hospitals with the infection. The 62-year-old invalid beneficiary said he initially thought he had picked up “just a slight bug”.

He called for help when he felt so unwell he was having difficulty breathing.

Green was in a coma in intensive care for one week and needed a respirator to help him breathe at one point. He had recovered with aggressive antibiotic treatment.

Although he was still coughing, he said that could be due to his having resumed smoking on the day he was discharged.

Legionnaires’ disease, first identified in the United States in 1976, is most common in people aged over 50. Males, smokers, heavy drinkers and those with chronic health conditions are most at risk.

Brieseman said there had been nine deaths in Canterbury in the past 11 years from the disease.

Christchurch Hospital infectious diseases specialist Alan Pithie said the rise in cases was “worrying”, but could be coincidental.

Legionnaires’ disease called for different treatment from other causes of pneumonia, and the death rate was as high as 38 per cent, he said.

However, he said doctors were aware of the situation and were “looking out for cases”.