The 2016 annual report on Legionnaires’ disease (LD) in England and Wales residents has been published by Public Health England.
A total of 355 confirmed cases of LD were reported to the national surveillance scheme for cases with onset of symptoms in 2016, more than half of which were considered to have encountered the source of infection from within the community (which includes UK travel-related cases). This is in line with 2015, when approximately half of cases had been “community infections”).
A smaller proportion of all 2016 cases (41.4%, 147 cases) were associated with travel abroad (compared with 46.1%, 177 cases, in 2015).
Spain remained the most-frequent travel destination among LD cases in 2016, with 28 cases having travelled there during their incubation period. However, the destination with the highest rate of infection in 2016 was United Arab Emirates.
Only 1.7% (six cases) in 2016 were healthcare-associated. There were 25 LD-related deaths, significantly below the median of 32 per year over the last decade.
An analysis of these figures will be discussed in other blog posts fro Collaton Consultancy Limited.
