NSW Health Issues Warning After Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak In Sydney

NSW Health issued a statement on Friday morning, advising of an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Sydney’s CBD.

The state's health department are asking anyone who has been in the CBD in the past 10 days to be on the lookout for symptoms of the disease, after five people who developed the disease in the last three weeks having spent time in the area.

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Two women and three men, have been identified with the bacteria that causes the disease, often associated with contaminated cooling towers of large buildings.

All five people independently visited locations in the last week and a half between Museum Station, York Street, Park Street and Martin Place prior to their onset of symptoms.

Ranging in ages from 40s to 70s, all five have been admitted to hospital for treatment for pneumonia.

Symptoms of the disease can develop up to 10 days from exposure to contaminated water particles, often associated with contaminated cooling towers and include “fever, chills, a cough and shortness of breath and may lead to severe chest infections such as pneumonia.”

NSW Health environmental health officers are currently working with the City of Sydney to review testing and maintenance of all cooling towers in the CBD area and to discover the potential sources of the outbreak.

These five cases follow a number of recently identified cases of Legionnaires’ disease throughout Sydney.

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