ONE hundred and fifteen people are believed to have been affected by the Legionnaires’ disease bug in an outbreak at a Sunderland leisure club, a report said yesterday.

The Health Protection Agency traced the outbreak last year to faults in the water treatment system at the Springs health club, which led to the legionella pneumophila bug colonising the spa pool system.

It is now known that the 115 people became ill after visiting the leisure club from August 11 to 25 last year.

Of these, two have been confirmed as having Legionnaires’ disease and five of having Pontiac Fever, a milder version caused by the same legionella organism.

Three people needed hospital treatment after the outbreak, which led Springs to shut the health club earlier this year.

The HPA report published yesterday said quick action had stopped even more people being affected.

Author Dr Kirsty Foster said: “The bacteria which cause Legionnaires’ disease and Pontiac Fever exist naturally in the environment, but problems arise when they contaminate man-made water systems, such as cooling towers, hot and cold water supply systems in buildings and spa pools.

“Infection occurs if you inhale tiny contaminated water droplets into the lungs, which is what we believe happened in this incident.

“The outbreak was challenging for many reasons, including the large number of people affected, the non-specific nature of their symptoms and the fact that most of the cases were reported by people after they had recovered.

“However, due to swift action by the environmental health department, local health protection staff and the leisure club it was possible to identify the source of the infection quickly and prevent any more people being exposed to the infection.”

Although the heath investigation into the incident is now complete, another probe is still being carried out by Sunderland City Council.

Nobody at Springs was available for comment yesterday.