State identifies cluster of Legionnaires' disease in Bangor area

State health officials are investigating whether six cases of Legionnaires’ disease that have been reported in the greater Bangor area since late last year can be traced to a common source.

Area health care providers have diagnosed approximately one new case a month of Legionnaires’ disease in the area since November 2018, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

All six people were hospitalized and one of them died, but the agency has not determined whether the bacteria caused the death, said Jackie Farwell, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

Maine CDC classified the recent group of cases as a cluster because they have occurred in a single geographic area but don’t have a common source of exposure that state health officials have identified. That’s not the same as an outbreak, which refers to a group of cases that can be traced to a common source.

Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2019/07/12/news/bangor/state-identifies-cluster-of-legionnaires-disease-in-bangor-area/