Melbourne legionnaires' disease outbreak: The symptoms to look out for Most people infected have needed to go to hospital The cases have all been linked to just one location READ MORE: Cooling tower identified as likely source as disease spreads By Blair Jackson For Nca Newswire and Padraig Collins For Daily Mail Australia Published: 08:24, 9 August 2024 | Updated: 08:24, 9 August 2024 e-mail View comments Cases of legionnaires' disease have topped 100 as the outbreak continues to grow in Melbourne . A Victorian Department of Health update said there have now been 100 confirmed and 10 suspected cases up to July 26, mostly in adults aged over 40. Most people who have been infected with the bacteria have needed to go to hospital, and those with severe community acquired pneumonia needed intensive care.
A 90-year-old woman and a man in his 60s have died in hospital since the outbreak started in Melbourne's west. All the infected people lived in or had visited the Melbourne metro area, the health department said. In more hopeful news, Victoria's Chief Health Officer Clare Looker said on Friday that genomic sequencing results had proven what authorities had hoped - that all confirmed legionnaires' cases were linked to one location, a cooling tower in Laverton North in Melbourne's west, which they have already treated.
'I can confirm that those sequences are all very closely related genomically and in fact form one single genomic cluster,' Dr Looker said. 'That sequencing has been .