Warning issued for Sydney CBD as cases of Legionnaires’ disease reported

Sydney University’s Infectious Diseases Paediatrician Robert Booy explains how people contract Legionnaires’ disease after it was discovered to be in Sydney’s CBD.

“The German legionella likes to be in water and it likes cooling towers in big buildings,” Mr Booy told Sky News Australia.

“So people who have been exposed to big buildings, air conditioning, the germ goes into the mist and then it goes into their lungs.

“It doesn’t spread from person to person.

“The dose is very little between people but the dose of the germ is highest in people exposed to the air conditioning.”