Regional medical officer of health, Dr. Yves Leger, speaks with reporters on Wednesday.
The investigation into a legionnaires’ disease outbreak in the Moncton area has come back inconclusive.
Regional medical officer of health, Dr. Yves Leger, said today that the investigation has ended, though it remains unclear where it originated.
Declared on Aug. 6, the outbreak involved nine people ranging in age from mid-20s to early-90s. Of those affected, seven were hospitalized, and one person died.
It was previously believed a cooling tower likely caused the outbreak, but Leger told reporters that is no longer the case.
“All type cases except one do not seem to be linked to a cooling tower from the results we have obtained from testing all the towers in the Greater Moncton area.”
Of the 69 cooling towers identified, Public Health said four with legionella bacteria required testing.
Leger believes it is unclear where these people became infected and he cannot be certain they are connected, and the cases could be sporadic.
Asked about whether people in the region should be concerned, Leger said legionella bacteria are present everywhere, and it’s always going to be a risk. He added certain precautions can be taken; however, there is no reason to believe that cooling towers are currently a risk, and the investigation did not identify other sources in the community.
The final steps are completing testing at one cooling tower site to ensure it is clean, debriefing the team and finalizing a short outbreak investigation report.
Leger said the recommendations he made following a 2019 outbreak still stand, and he will not make any more for this outbreak.
