Issued: 31 Jul 2024
NHS Highland and Highland Council's Environmental Health Service are
working together to investigate two cases of Legionnaire's Disease which
A woman is currently being treated in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
She is local to the Highlands and last visited the leisure centre at
Mackay's Hotel on 17 June.
A man is currently being treated in the Western General Hospital,
Glasgow. He is not local to the Highlands. He visited Mackay's Hotel as
part of a coach tour and used the leisure facilities at the hotel over
the same weekend 16/17 June.
Both patients are over 60. Their contact with Mackay's Hotel appears to
be the only link between them.
The owners of the hotel are co-operating fully with the investigation
and have voluntarily closed the hotel. An inspection of the premises
has focused on the swimming pool and Jacuzzi. The hotel has not been
confirmed as the source of the bacteria. Results of further tests are
still awaited.
NHS Highland and Environmental Health Service are attempting to contact
anyone who visited the Hotel between the 11th of June and the 29th June
by phone and letter.
The purpose of this is to ensure that anyone showing symptoms of
Legionnaire's Disease knows to contact their GP.
Consultant in Public Health Medicine Dr Ken Oates said: "The symptoms to
look out for are similar to flu and include fever, dry cough, headache,
muscle aches and sometimes also breathlessness and diarrhoea.
The risk is low but anyone showing symptoms who has been at the hotel in
the past two or three weeks, particularly those who used the swimming
pool or Jacuzzi, should err on the side of caution and consult their GP.
Alistair Thomson, the Council's Head of Environmental Health said: "It
is important to emphasise that this infection is not caught from other
people and cannot be spread from person to person. There is no
indication that anyone who has not visited the Hotel is likely to be
exposed to risk - so there is no risk to the wider community."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
* Legionnaire's Disease is a type of Pneumonia.
* It typically affects older people, smokers or those with
existing chest conditions.
* The bacterium which causes Legionnaire's Disease is widespread
in nature but doesn't usually cause health problems.
* People contract Legionnaire's Disease by breathing in droplets
of water which are contaminated with Legionella pneumophila bacteria.
* Most cases of Legionnaire's Disease can be treated successfully
with antibiotics.
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