State identifies legionellosis cluster in Bangor region – Bangor Daily News – BDN Maine

State health officials are currently studying the possibility of linking six cases of legionellosis reported in the Bangor area since the end of last year to a common source.

Health care providers in the region have diagnosed about one more case of legionellosis in the region in a month since November 2018, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The six people were hospitalized and one of them died, but the agency has not yet determined whether the bacteria had caused the death, said Jackie Farwell, a spokeswoman for the hospital. from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

In Maine, the CDC has classified the group of recent cases into a cluster because they occurred in a single geographic region but do not have a common source of exposure identified by state health authorities. This is not the same as an epidemic, which refers to a group of cases that can be traced to a common source.

Legionellosis is a type of pneumonia that can occur when people breathe water droplets contaminated by a type of bacterium that is naturally present in freshwater environments such as lakes and streams, but that can spread infrastructure such as air conditioning and large plumbing systems. , according to the Maine CDC.

Symptoms include coughing, shortness of breath, fever, muscle aches, and headaches, but most healthy people exposed to the bacteria do not get sick.

The six diagnoses since last November show an increase for the region. In the last five years, Penobscot County has averaged only three cases of legionellosis a year, Farwell said.

The agency also warns the public that legionnaires' disease can not be transmitted from person to person and that residents of the greater Bangor area do not need to do anything extraordinary because of the disease cluster.

"The Maine CDC announces this survey to raise public awareness, but locals do not need to take specific action to address it," Farwell said. "The Maine CDC has alerted health care providers in the area so they can consider testing the disease, which could help identify new cases. All cases must be reported to Maine CDC. "

Farwell said that all people diagnosed lived in the greater Bangor area, but did not specify which communities are included in the area. She also stated that cases were not isolated in a single facility such as a retirement home.