British tourist, 70, dies of legionnaires’ disease in Majorca as outbreak spreads

A BRITISH man has died after contracting legionnaires’ disease in Majorca, where an unsolved outbreak has affected more than a dozen holidaymakers from the UK.

Health chiefs are now trying to locate the source of the outbreak in the resort of Palmanova, a popular destination for Britons, north of Magaluf.

One British tourist, a man aged 61, was still being treated at Son Espases Hospital in the island’s capital Palma, the hospital where a 70-year-old British man died last Wednesday, Maria Ramos, the regional health authority chief said. A total of 19 people, 13 of them British, have been affected by the outbreak since the first case was reported on Oct 5.

The rest of the Britons who contracted the disease, aged from 46 to 87, are now back in the UK and are understood to have been given the all-clear or are recovering from their illnesses.

Positive samples were detected at an unnamed hotel in Palmanova where nine of those affected had stayed. The hotel closed after its water supply was shut down.

But Mrs Ramos said the holidaymakers diagnosed with legionnaires’ had stayed at seven different hotels in the resort, making it unlikely the hotel with the most number of people affected was the source of the outbreak – or the sole source if it ended up being linked to the scare.

Regional health authorities and local police have reacted by closing beach showers and a water fountain in Palmanova as well as water sprinklers and checking to make sure restaurants are not using the water mist systems some were employing last month.

The elderly Briton who died, whose name has not been disclosed, was particularly vulnerable because he suffered from several other pre-existing health conditions including diabetes, leukaemia and coronary heart disease.

Ms Ramos, who is coordinating the response to the outbreak, said: “We have found positive samples of legionella bacteria in the hotel where most of the affected people were staying which is why we took the decision to shut down the water supply. But what we cannot say for the moment 100 per cent is that those people fell ill because of the legionella bacteria in that hotel.”

Legionnaires’ disease is a serious lung infection caused by legionella bacteria. Initial symptoms are usually flu-like, such as headaches, muscle pain and fever, with symptoms of pneumonia developing once the bacteria infect the lungs. It is not contagious and is usually caught by breathing in small droplets of contaminated water.