Shropshire Legionnaire's Disease outbreak remains a mystery

The source of an outbreak of the potentially lethal Legionnaire's Disease in Shropshire has still not been found, health experts said today.

They are expected to take a decision at the end of the week on whether to continue the investigation in the Whitchurch area, where two people were struck down with the infection. The patients were a man and woman, both in their sixties.

Although not related, they live just one mile from each other.

The investigation has been led by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) along Shropshire Council's environmental health department and Shropshire County Primary Care Trust.

A spokesman for the HPA said: "The investigation is continuing but to date no sources have been found and there have been no further cases."

He said that as part of the investigation, maintenance records of water cooling towers at industrial sites had been examined but "nothing untoward" had been found.

Both the man and woman are continuing to recover at home.

Legionnaire's Disease is a form of pneumonia caused by a bacteria which lives in water but cannot be caught from washing or drinking tap water.

People become ill when they inhale the bacteria when it released into the air from a contaminated source.