Health experts looking for the source of the deadly Legionnaires' outbreak in Stoke-on-Trent have indicated that the source of the disease might have been a hot tub that was turned on for display purposes in the JTF Mega Discount Warehouse. It was found that about 18 people, who contracted the disease, visited the warehouse in the two weeks duration.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said that a sample taken from the hot tub in the store on City Road in Fenton contained a rare strain of legionella bacteria that was matched with that in the patients.
Doctors are treating eight people with Legionnaires' disease at the hospital after one person died over the weekend due to the deadly water infection spread. A patient was shifted to Glenfield hospital, Leicester, in a critical but stable condition. Health experts say that all of those affected with the disease in the outbreak in Stoke are aged between late 40s and mid-70s.
Legionnaire's disease is caused when a person inhales small droplets that are contaminated with legionella bacterium. Experts say that the Legionnella bacteria can travel for miles through the air. Experts have rinsed16 cooling towers with chlorine to contain the disease and if a cooling tower is confirmed to the source of the infection then further cleaning will be undertaken.
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