Outbreak of legionnaires’ disease associated with visits to Belgium

Five cases of legionnaires’ disease have been reported in British people who all stayed at a hotel in Belgium in the ten days before onset of illness. All have been confirmed as L. pneumophila serogroup 1, one by culture of the organism and four by urinary antigen detection. The first case, who died, was a 63 year old man who became ill on 7 September 2002. He travelled with a small group of ten people, two of whom were reported to have had respiratory symptoms but were negative on testing for legionella infection. Three cases, one male and two female aged between 74 and 84 years were in a party of 46 people on a coach tour to Austria. They became ill between 21 and 24 September and two were hospitalised in France and one in England. The fifth case became ill on the 28 September and is also in hospital in France. This patient (female aged 65 years) was from a third group of 40 British tourists on another Austrian tour. All cases stayed only one night at the hotel in Belgium.