Eight victims of Legionnaires disease in Catalonia

The Legionella outbreak in the north of Catalonia has claimed another 3 people. This brings the total number of deaths in the region to eight . It is, however, unclear at present what the source of the outbreak is or even if there is more than one outbreak because deaths have been recorded in two separate clusters, both geographically and temporally. Three deaths occurred in the town of Ripollet near Barcelona and four people died earlier in September in Sabadell, seven kilometers from Ripollet.

The victims have all been elderly or infirm. The death rates are unusually high which suggests that either the strain of the bacterium is unusually virulent or the total number of cases is so far under reported.