DOCTORS at Burnley General Hospital are treating a patient with the potentially fatal illness Legionnaire's Disease.

Jack Cheetham, 61, of Coal Clough Lane, Burnley, was today "stable but poorly" in the intensive care unit.

It is understood he contracted the bacterial pneumonia on holiday abroad.

Consultant in communicable disease control Dr Roberta Marshall said: "We are not investigating a local source.

"The disease cannot be passed on person to person and when there is an outbreak, it can always be traced back to a common source such as an air conditioning system or communal shower.

"The organism which causes Legionnaire's disease lives in water but can get carried in very small droplets. If it is inhaled the bacteria can breed in the lungs.

"In general terms it is recognised that if certain factors are present, such as if the patient is over 45 or if they already have a form of chest problem, it can present more of a risk." Dr Marshall said the mortality rate for the disease was 15 per cent but if identified early it could be treated with anti-biotics.

The symptoms are feeling off colour and loss of appetite, achy and suffering headaches which develop to a fever and temperature, a dry cough and chest symptoms similar to pneumonia.

In 1990 there were three cases of Legionnaire's Disease linked to East Lancashire and all three patients recovered.

Legionellosis is the name given to a group of diseases with Legionnaire's Disease being the most common.

It was first identified in 1976 following an outbreak of severe respiratory disease in delegates at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia.

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