Around half (116) of the 235 cases of Legionnaires’ disease reported to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in England and Wales in 2011 were in returning holiday makers. The annual number of Legionnaires’ cases has fallen from 355 cases in 2010, when around a third (114) were in returning travellers.
Legionnaires’ disease can be contracted by breathing in droplets of water or aerosols containing the legionella bacteria from water sources which may have had temperature problems, or where water has remained stagnant for a period of time. Spa pools, shower heads or taps can sometimes be the source of an outbreak.
The illness usually affects vulnerable people, such as the elderly and almost 70 per cent of the cases reported in 2011 were in people with an underlying health condition, including almost 30 per cent in people with heart disease. Smokers and people with diabetes or a weakened immune system were also at higher risk.
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