Since November 1, 22 cases of legionellosis have been detected in the Strasbourg urban area. Of the patients, two died. The prefecture is investigating to determine the origin of the contamination.
Strasbourg is on alert. Since 1er November, 22 cases of legionellosis were detected in the conurbation. Among the patients, aged 42 to 88, two died. The other 18 are cured or on the way to recovery, announced this Wednesday, December 18 the Bas-Rhin prefecture. The latter is carrying out “extensive investigations on each patient” in order to try to determine the origin of the contamination.
“The collective installations at risk have been identified and controlled”, with 113 analyzes so far. The results are expected by the end of December. I’ARS Great East (Regional Health Agency), the Regional Directorate for the Environment, the Dreal (Housing Development), the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP) and the Hygiene and Environmental Health Service (SHSE) of the City of Strasbourg have joined forces to completely disinfect all the air-cooling towers in the sector. Several collective installations have also been stopped preventively, the time to remove the doubt on the origin of the contamination.
The disease can only be caught by inhalation
Legionnaires’ disease is a pulmonary infection affecting mainly adults and particularly people who smoke, suffer from chronic respiratory diseases or weakened immune defences. The incubation period is 2 to 10 days. It is then characterized by fever and pulmonary signs (cough, difficulty breathing) and can sometimes be accompanied by diarrhea, muscle pain, intense fatigue or even a lack of appetite. Most of the time, the patient must be hospitalized. However, under adapted and quickly implemented antibiotic treatment, legionellosis “evolves favorably”, explains the prefecture of Bas-Rhin in its press release.
In terms of transmission, “Legionellosis is not transmitted from person to person”. Inhalation is the only mode of contamination. An individual can therefore catch it by inhaling contaminated water vapor diffused in aerosol (shower, or whirlpool bath for example) or via wet cooling systems (aero-cooling towers) of certain industrial installations and networks. hot water.
In the Bas-Rhin, seven people died of legionellosis in 2019
In 2017, 1,630 cases of legionellosis were diagnosed in France, according to Public Health France. Among them, 9 cases were residents of the overseas departments (1 case in Guadeloupe, 2 in Martinique and 6 in Réunion) and 32 foreign nationals diagnosed in France. In metropolitan France, the incidence rate of notified cases was 2.4/100,000 inhabitants. The following year, in Bas-Rhin, 48 cases were reported and five people died. This year, throughout the department, 71 people contracted the disease, including these 22, and seven died.
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