Update: Outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in a hotel in Calpe, Spain November 2011 – May 2012
An update of ECDC's risk assessment on 24 May, in response to new information shared via the EWRS by Spain’s Ministry of Health.
Executive Summary
The outbreak, which has been ongoing since November 2011 and is associated with a hotel in Calpe, in the province of Alicante, has to date resulted in 20 confirmed and two probable cases of travel-associated Legionnaires’ disease (TALD), while an additional three cases have been detected in hotel staff.
A possible source of infection for the three most recent cases with symptom onset at the beginning of May was the hotel spa. Environmental samples were taken by the Spanish public health authorities and recent typing results support this hypothesis.
According to the Spanish authorities, action has been taken and the hotel is complying with all the appropriate regulations. All recent environmental samples taken from the hotel, including the spa, have tested negative and the hotel therefore may not represent a significant risk for visitors at the present time.
Very stringent control measures have been implemented at the hotel in order to prevent further cases of Legionnaires’ disease.
