Three years after the a Legionella outbreak left a dozen people dead and hundreds infected, survivors and familes of the deceased await justice, compensation and punishment for those responsible.
The outbreak of Legionella in November 2014 was caused by a poorly maintained chimney at a fertilser factory in the Vila Franca de Xira area of Lisbon. Twelve people died and a further 375 people were infected with the bacterium.
Only in March 2017 did the Public Ministry get around to charging seven individuals and two companies (Adubos de Portugal and a maintenance company owned by General Electric) for failing to keep the chimney clean and for infecting locals.
Referring to a "manifest lack of care," the indictment states that the defendants did not comply with "a set of rules and practices for the maintenance of one of the cooling towers."
Astonishingly, the prosecutor only was able to establish a causal link in 73 of those affected and in eight of the 12 fatalities.
The victims' association in Vila Franca de Xira now has requested the opening of an investigation into the prosecution’s lamentable performance and is to file a lawsuit against the State.
This action awaits court approval before going ahead, with the association's lawyer, Ana Severino, saying that she is currently is handling legal aid appeals on behalf of individual association members as many applications have been rejected by the State.
The president of the 'Association to Support to the Victims of Legionella,' Joaquim Ramos, complained about the snail-like progress of the case and the effect this is having on many of the victims.
"We have people who have been living in great financial difficulties and have had to give up their claims as they have run out of money. We have done everything in our power to help them," said Ramos adding that the investigation has been poorly run and, three years later, there has been no compensation and nobody has been found responsible.
The Mayor of Vila Franca de Xira, Alberto Mesquita, said the delay in the court case means that the Government needs to take an active role in supporting the victims.
Mesquita also claims that parliament still has not amended the law covering the Legionella prevention regimes that companies need to follow.
The outbreak started on November 2014 with the then Minister of Health, Paulo Macedo, admitting that hospitals had "treated more than 300 cased of pneumonia."
Legionnaire's disease is contracted by inhalation of droplets of contaminated water vapor which transport the bacterium to the lungs. The disease has caused 12 deaths and more than 400 cases of infection in the past three years in Portugal.
Francisco George, who in October this year left the post of Director General of Health, said in an interview that the Vila Franca de Xira outbreak showed that "Portugal has a fantastic National Health Service."
The disease has symptoms including coughing, chills, breathing difficulties, muscle aches, high fever or gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting. It is transmitted by the inhalation of droplets contaminated with the bacteria.
An outbreak of Legionella last week, this time at the Hospital São Francisco Xavier in Lisbon, is particularly serious because it has happened in a building, "with hundreds of workers and patients, many of them elderly and therefore more vulnerable to the disease," according to a Communist Party statement.
The Secretary of State for Health said to journalists on Sunday that, “they are 24 cases. The situations, from the clinical point of view, are stabilised. We have two patients in intensive care, but the situation is stable."
The Communist Party statement read that, "The severity and size of this case is still far from being known. Given that the incubation period of the disease can be as long as ten days, the universe of infected people may be larger which in itself requires a reinforcement of control measures, the rapid identification of the source of the problem and its resolution, and in the treatment of infected patients."
