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Seven people in the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszow have died and 76 have been contaminated in an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, the authorities said on Friday.
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“In all, four men and three women have died,” the head of the Polish health inspection service, Krzysztof Saczka, told Polsat News television.
Legionnaires’ disease is caused by bacteria that can multiply in water and air-conditioning systems.
Spreading through contaminated droplets, the bug can cause fever and pneumonia, especially among people with weak immune systems, although it is not directly contagious from person to person.
Those who died were aged from 63 to 95 and suffered from cancer, cardiac problems, or other chronic diseases, Saczka said.
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The source of the outbreak remains unclear, and results from the first tests of water samples are not expected before Monday.
Authorities in Rzeszow, a city of some 200,000 people, have stepped up disinfection procedures in the meantime.
The disease takes its name from the first known outbreak, which occurred in 1976 at a hotel in Philadelphia where the American Legion military veterans’ association was holding a conference.
More than 220 people fell ill, of whom 34 died.
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