Alarm sounded over surge in cases of ‘really horrible’ preventable disease

Health experts have sounded the alarm about an increase in cases of a “really horrible” and potentially fatal disease.

In the year to October 16, there have been 660 notifications of the potentially fatal legionnaires’ disease in Australia, an increase of more than 200 cases on the five-year annual average.

Head of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences at Melbourne University, Professor Bruce Thompson, says some “really basic stuff is really helpful to prevent what can be a life-threatening condition”.

Press PLAY below to hear Professor Thompson’s advice

Professor Thompson is urging gardeners are being urged to wear masks and gloves when handling potting mix and compost.

“Basically if you think of a bag full of all soil it’s sort of not a big stretch to think there’s probably bugs in that,” Professor Thompson said.

“As soon as you open it up and disturb it, any bacteria, especially the legionella bacteria that can sit in potting mix, will be like a big plume, so when you breathe that in that potentially sits in another nice warm environment like your lungs and potentially gives you pneumonia.”

Legionnaire’s diseases causes fever, chills, cough and shortness of breath. It can also cause muscle aches, headache, tiredness, loss of appetite and diarrhoea. The disease can cause pneumonia, and can be fatal.