The fatality is a 50-year-old man from Ghent. He was admitted to the hospital in critical condition last Monday. His skin was gray, he had a high fever, was coughing violently, and was very short of breath. A Legionella infection was not immediately suspected, a nurse told the Flemish news channel VTM last night.
By the next day, Hervé Férodet’s condition had deteriorated so severely that he had to be placed on a ventilator. The man in his 50s died last weekend. He lived alone in Ghent’s Kanaalzone and had diabetes.
Ghent Port
Férodet was the first of sixteen people hospitalized with a Legionella infection. The latest patient, for now, was admitted on Sunday. Six of the victims are over 65 and have a chronic illness or a weakened immune system. The youngest patient is 25, and the oldest is 90.
Most patients are from Evergem, and a few are from nearby Ghent. An investigation is underway to determine whether they visited the same location, but initial findings suggest this is not the case. However, they all come from the area surrounding the Port of Ghent.
Drinking Water
The Flemish Agency for Care and Health therefore believes that the source of the infection may well be a cooling tower for drinking water. “It’s possible that contaminated water mist spread into the open air and then settled somewhere,” a spokesperson told *Het Laatste Nieuws*.
The Agency has taken samples from the cooling towers of 17 companies in the Port of Ghent. The samples are currently being cultured. Because the bacteria must first be able to grow in such a water sample, the results are not expected until Monday. A Legionella outbreak has previously claimed lives in Belgium. In November 1999, five people died after contracting the infection from hot tubs at a trade show in Kapellen near Antwerp.
It is possible that contaminated water mist spread into the open air and then settled somewhere.
Nine months earlier, the Netherlands had been hit by a major Legionella outbreak. More than 200 visitors to the Westfriese Flora in Bovenkarspel were infected by water mist from two filthy hot tubs. Of the patients, 32 died from the effects of the infection.
In October 2014, a 69-year-old man from Enkhuizen died after becoming infected in a sauna in Avenhorn, North Holland. Legionella is a bacterium found in water. Infection occurs through inhalation of contaminated water droplets. Push-button showers in swimming pools and hot tubs are particularly likely to spread the bacteria. The bacterium lives in groundwater, surface water, and drinking water and thrives in stagnant water at temperatures between 25 and 45 degrees.
Not everyone gets sick
The bacterium can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a severe—and sometimes fatal—form of pneumonia. Not everyone gets sick. In the Netherlands, approximately 300 people contract this form of pneumonia each year. Risk factors include being over forty years of age, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and a weakened immune system.
Source: AD
