The health service today confirmed the deaths of two people that had been infected with legionella in last week's outbreak. The victims were being treated in the Santa Maria Hospital and a private clinic in Lisbon.
Graça Freitas, Director General of Health, confirmed late in the afternoon that the outbreak of legionella in the San Francisco Xavier hospital has caused the two deaths: a 70-year-old woman who was said to be suffering from other health problems and a man of 77 who also was not in the peak of health and died in the intensive care unit of a private clinic.
A health service spokesman reported that all of the other cases are stable and that two further cases have been confirmed. Of the 29 infected, "26 are hospitalised, three of them in the intensive care of the Hospital San Francisco Xavier, where the infection was detected."
Graça Freitas said the National Institute of Health is conducting analyses, which will take time to produce results to find where the legionella came from but it is most likely that the bacteria was lurking in the hospital’s cooling towers or in the water system.
See also: 'No compensation for 2014 Legionella victims'No compensation for 2014 Legionella victims'
