Almost 50 people are suspected to have come down with a "flu-like" illness caused by the Legionella bug after using a health club in Sunderland. The pool and spa area of the Springs Club, off Wessington Way in Castletown, have been closed voluntarily while health experts investigate the cause of the outbreak. The Health Protection Agency (HPA), who found the bug in the club's spa, said the bug, which was pontiac fever, was not life threatening. Dr Kirsty Foster, stated "we are waiting for test results before we confirm the diagnosis but the symptoms we are seeing are not consistent with Legionnaires' disease, which causes pneumonia. But they do suggest a similar illness called pontiac fever, which is caused by the same Legionella organism."
In related news, three cases of Legionnaires' disease in North Shropshire and neighbouring Wales are not thought to be linked, the HPA have reported. The three men from Oswestry and Whitchurch, in Shropshire and Montomery, in Powys, are recovering in hospital after contracting the illness last week. A doctor for the HPA stated that samples taken from them had shown that there was not a common cause, and therefore no threat to the community.
