COMMUNICATIONS

Media Release - 19/08/2005

Public Health Teams Start Study on Legionnaires Disease in City

Public health teams will today begin to revisit the 19 people and their families affected by Legionnaires Disease in Christchurch. They are surveying everyone as part of a formal scientific study (case control) to ensure all information about the person who developed the disease is collected. The study will compare risk factors among the people with the disease with risk factors of other people in the same age and gender range. These (other) people who live in the Christchurch area will be contacted at random by telephone.

Leading the team is Medical Officer of Health Dr Alistair Humphrey who said he anticipated being able to complete the questionnaires within the week.

‘We will be interviewing the individual people who contracted Legionnaires Disease and also talking with the immediate families of the three people who have since died. We want to make sure we have as much information as possible that will help us determine possible causes. This will be compared with the other people taking part in the study.’

Meantime work is continuing on the cooling tower checks. A large number have now been checked and tested and the test results have gone to ESR for analysis. Final test results usually take up to 14 days to be returned and Community & Public Health say it will be another week before the first of the test results come through. There has been good cooperation from local businesses which, it is hoped, will continue until all the cooling towers in the city have been identified and tested.

Ends.

Vivienne Allan
Communications Manager
0275-314-796