The Edinburgh Legionnaires’ disease outbreak is officially ‘over’. The outbreak, which struck in May and has so far taken the lives of three people, was declared over following a review meeting of the Incident Management Team (IMT) on Tuesday.
To date, there are a total of 101 confirmed and suspected cases. All of these cases have links to the south west of Edinburgh and fit the timescales of exposure and the incubation period for developing Legionella-related illness.
Detailed investigations into the source of the outbreak continue with further testing and analysis of the environmental samples taken from potential sources being carried out.
Lothian and Borders Police and the Health and Safety Executive are jointly investigating the circumstances of the deaths under the direction of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) Health and Safety Division, and research is also underway to better understand the full extent of the outbreak.
Dr Alison McCallum, Director of Public Health and Health Policy, NHS Lothian said: “As we have seen over the last week, we can expect further cases who have been ill for some time to continue to come forward and our increased surveillance will continue.
“However, all the evidence is suggesting that the action taken when the outbreak was first identified was effective and all cases fall within the expected incubation period, so the decision has been made to declare the outbreak over.
“Laboratory work is ongoing to try and identify the source conclusively but, as we have said from the start, it may not be possible to do so.
“There is also more work to be done to gain a better understanding of the scale of the outbreak and how to manage outbreaks in the future. We hope that people who are approached to participate in these studies will come forward and help us with this significant piece of research.”
A full report into the outbreak detailing the epidemiological, environmental, meteorological and microbiological investigations and recommendations for the prevention and control of future outbreaks will now be produced.
Welcoming the announcement, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: “It is good news that the outbreak has been declared over, and as we have already seen, the number of new cases has been dropping off over recent weeks.
“We have worked closely with NHS Lothian to ensure the outbreak was well managed, and I would like to pay tribute to NHS staff who have coped extremely well with this situation.
“However, we have to remember that there are some patients who remain extremely ill, and NHS staff are maintaining high quality care for those patients.
“The Health and Safety Executive and Edinburgh City Council are continuing their investigations into the source of the outbreak.”
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