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The undersecretary of State and Health said that water harvests are being carried out due to the legionella outbreak in the northern region of the country, but he refused to commit to deadlines or advance preventive measures.
“We are collecting water analysis from the cooling towers in different spaces, drinking water and patient secretions to check if the legionella strains are the same or not (…). We are in an initial phase,” said António Lacerda Ventas .
At stake is an outbreak of legionella that is affecting the municipalities of Vila do Conde, Póvoa de Varzim and Matosinhos, in the Porto district, whose death toll rose to six on Tuesday.
In total, since the beginning of the month, at least 62 cases of Legionella have been recorded in counties in the northern region, and the origin of the outbreak has yet to be determined.
Faced with this situation, António Lacerda Sales, who was speaking with journalists in Valongo, apart from meetings and visits related to the covid-19 pandemic, did not commit to deadlines to advance preventive measures, or dates for conclusions on the harvests. and analyzes that are being carried out.
“The harvests go to INSA [Instituto Nacional De Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge]. Later we will draw the conclusions (…). We are taking care of how, after the harvest, we carry out the necessary thermal and chemical shocks and the treatment of the water, ”said the government official who, at the insistence of journalists, guaranteed that the process will accelerate.
“Right now we are working. I cannot commit in time. We will have to accelerate. INSA is aware of this. The population must always be alert,” he said.
Legionnaires’ disease, caused by the bacteria ‘Legionella pneumophila’, is contracted by inhaling contaminated water vapor droplets (aerosols) so small that they carry the bacteria to the lungs, depositing it in the lung alveoli.
At the Pedro Hispano Hospital, in Matosinhos, 20 people remain hospitalized, according to data from Tuesday.
Also at the Centro Hospitalar da Póvoa de Varzim the number of hospitalizations due to the disease has been increasing, with two more cases diagnosed, bringing to 13 the number of people who are receiving care in the unit, where there have already been two deaths, the source of this unit also confirmed.
In the Hospital of São João, in Porto, six people are hospitalized, two of whom are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
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