Health authorities have closed down a Faro hotel that was the common factor in four cases of Legionnaires' disease detected in three Britons and a Spaniard, announced the Regional Health Administration of the Algarve in a statement issued on Wednesday, November 2nd.
"Following the notification of four cases of Legionnaires' disease epidemiologically associated with a stay in hotel establishment in Faro, prevention and control measures have been adopted,” which is a long-winded way of saying that the hotel has been evacuated and closed.
The bacterial analysis carried out by a team from the Public Health Unit whose results were announced today, "revealed a strong positive for the Legionella pneumophila strain in various parts of the building's service supply network."
With the Public Health Unit report in hand, the feared Authority for Food and Economic Safety (ASAE) had the hotel closed to the public while cleaning and disinfecting work is carried out.
Neither body would report which of Faro’s hotels had been shut down (it is the 2-star Hotel Adelaide in Rua Cruz das Mestras), whether the management will be fined under health and safety legislation, or how the patients are doing.
