Tests being carried out at a private clinic in Nicosia to determine the source of an infection of legionnaires disease, which saw one baby hospitalised, have thus far not produced any clear results, epidemiological surveillance unit officer Michalis Mendris said on Friday.
“We have some results which are preliminary, but we will continue the analyses. There is nothing clear at this time to say. We are looking in the water supply network both at the clinic and at the child’s family home,” he said.
It had initially been expected that the source of the infection would be found by the end of this week, but now, he said, this deadline has been pushed back.
“We expect to have a clear picture from the analyses both from the hospital and from the home. We expect to have the final results next week,” he said.
He added that the clinic “remains closed because analyses are being conducted”, and that the baby who was hospitalised remains in a “critical but stable” condition at Nicosia’s Makarios children’s hospital.
On this front, he said that it is “significant” that no other baby who was being treated at the clinic or adult who was working at it has been diagnosed with the disease.
“As long as the days go by and no other incident occurs, that is good. A few more days and we will be able to say that there will not be another incident,” he said.
The United Kingdom’s national health service describes legionnaires disease as “a lung infection you can get from inhaling droplets of water from things like air conditioning or hot tubs”, and that it is “uncommon but very serious”.
It does not typically spread from person to person, but instead only through the inhalation of water droplets contaminated with the bacteria, which ordinarily grow in man-made water systems.
Previously, Mendris had said that the microbe which causes the disease can grow for “various reasons”, such as “seasonal stagnation of the network” or “a problem with the temperature” of the water in the supply.
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