The Extremadura Health Service (SES) has confirmed a new legionella infection, within the epidemiological investigation initiated after the discovery of the first case. This is a 74-year-old man, who is admitted to the floor at the Hospital San Pedro de Alcántara de Cáceres, where six other patients remain, as confirmed by the Junta de Extremadura.
Of them, there are five patients on the ward. She is an 85-year-old woman and four men aged 76, 74, 71 and 55, while two 65-year-old men remain hospitalized in the ICU.
This Legionella outbreak has already claimed the life of an 85-year-old man and the authorities are working to prevent further infections. Last week eight public fountains in Cáceres were closed when legionella bacteria were found as a result of preventive controls carried out by the water service concessionaire, Canal de Isabel II.
The sanitary controls in the public fountains of the city continue, as well as in the ornamental ones and in the irrigation systems of the parks and gardens, since this disease is transmitted by aerosols. A similar outbreak occurred in the city last summer, killing five people.
The mayor of Cáceres, Rafael Mateos, has confirmed that work is underway to carry out the epidemiological study, “to know the origin of that or those possible cases of legionella to see if there is any connection between them and if the focus may be at some point of the city of Cáceres”.
