Kent Health Protection Unit (HPU), part of the Health Protection Agency, last month announced it was leading an investigation into five confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease in East Kent.
A 12 August statement said it was already investigating three cases, two with “links” with the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, with the third involving a patient with no known connection to the William Harvey admitted to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital in Canterbury already ill with Legionella infection who later died. The Kent HPU subsequently confirmed that a further two cases had just been reported, one relating to a patient who had been an inpatient at the William Harvey, and the other with no link to any hospital. Both hospitals are operated by the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust. The Kent HPU said its work to identify the source would include investigating all places each person visited in the two weeks before they fell ill. As a precaution, the William Harvey Hospital said it had “flushed through its water system”, fitted biofilters “where appropriate”, undertaken hyperchlorination, and suspended use of baths, showers and water births until shower and bath fittings had been “disinfected appropriately.” A Trust spokesman said it was also taking 50 samples a day from different wards on a 5-day cycle “until there is no evidence of Legionella anywhere”. He added that presence of Legionella bacteria in the water system had only been confirmed at one of the Trust’s five sites, the William Harvey. In addition to the Ashford and Canterbury hospitals, the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust also operates the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, the Buckland Hospital in Dover, and Folkestone’s Royal Victoria Hospital.
