A man has died following an outbreak of legionnaires' disease in Sydney earlier this month.
The 80-year-old man iss one of nine people infected with the disease, according to NSW Health. The department suspects that an infected cooling tower may be responsible for the outbreak around Town Hall station in the CBD.
NSW Health and City of Sydney inspectors have inspected 1,400 cooling towers registered with the council but are still unable to identify the source of the outbreak.
The department’s director of communicable diseases, Dr Vicky Sheppeard, said the bacteria that causes legionnaires’ disease can multiply in the water used to cool air-conditioning systems, so infection is prevented by routine maintenance.
“Our environmental health officers have been out with the City of Sydney going basically door to door, building by building, inspecting the cooling towers, taking samples and seeing if they can find what might be the source of the infection,” she said.
The City of Sydney maintains a register of cooling towers and can order that they be maintained or shut down if sampling finds evidence of the disease.
Business owners are expected to have the units inspected every month, cleaned every six months and certified annually.
In a statement, the council said samples are being sent to a state government-owned laboratory.
Outbreaks of the disease have previously occurred in Sydney in 2011, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992 and 1989.