A man has become the second resident to die from Legionnaires’ disease in Melbourne as Victoria grapples with its worst outbreak in 20 years.
The man, aged in his 60s, contracted the illness on July 27 before dying in hospital on Sunday.
His death comes after a woman, aged in her 90s, died last Tuesday.
Victoria’s chief health officer Clare Looker said the situation appeared to be stabilising.
‘We’ve definitely seen a decrease in the speed with which notifications are coming in and definitely a clustering of those symptoms and onsets from those earlier dates,’ she told the Herald Sun.
‘Hopefully we’re seeing the tail of things.’
The number of confirmed or suspected cases currently stands at 77.
Authorities are still desperately searching for the source of the ‘unusual’ outbreak of the disease in the city’s west.
A man has become the second resident to die from Legionnaires’ disease in Melbourne as Victoria grapples with its worst outbreak in 20 years (stock image)
Hudson Institute of Medical Research director Elizabeth Hartland said the next few days would be crucial.
‘It is a very significant outbreak for Australia, with these numbers of people,’ she said.
Ms Hartland said the outbreak was coming at an unusual time during the winter as air conditioners – where the disease commonly grows – aren’t used as often.
She added that the hospitalisation rate, 59 of the 60 confirmed cases at the time, were or had been in hospital was also abnormal.
‘They’ve either had a very large dose of the bacteria, so something is heavily contaminated, or there’s something inherently more virulent about this particular strain of legionella,’ Ms Hartland said.
Health authorities are scrambling to test a number of cooling towers around Derrimut or Laverton North in hopes of finding the source of the outbreak.
Ms Looker suspects one of the towers is behind the sudden surge in cases but can not be certain as testing takes up to 10 days to complete.
The disease is a severe form of pneumonia caused by a bacterium known as legionella.
A majority of cases can be linked to breathing in microscopic water droplets containing the bacteria and is rarely passed from person to person.
The disease is a severe form of pneumonia caused by legionella bacterium (pictured) and is particularly dengerous to older adults, smokers and those with weak immune symptoms
Legionella has been linked to growing in cooling towers and air conditioning units, hot water tanks, water features, drinking water, swimming pools and hot tubs.
The current outbreak is the largest since the deadly Melbourne Aquarium outbreak in 2000, which infected at least 125 people of which four died.
People aged over 40, smokers and people with weak immune symptoms are more likely to experience harsher symptoms of the disease.
‘Legionnaires’ disease can cause a chest infection with symptoms of fever, chills, cough, headache and muscle aches and pains,’ the state’s health department said in a statement.
‘Other atypical symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and confusion.’
Those who live, work or have been to Melbourne’s Metropolitan area and presenting with symptoms have been urgent to promptly seek medical care and get tested.
More to come.
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