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Saturday, July 19, 2008, 08:00
The infection was diagnosed in the patient on Thursday morning following a routine urine sample.
The patient was isolated and family informed.
Water pipes at the hospital have been disinfected as a precautionary measure and bottled water brought in for patients to drink and wash with.
Health Protection Officials are now working with hospital and environmental health teams to work out the cause of the infection.
It is not clear yet whether the patient contracted the potentially-lethal disease during their stay in the hospital or outside.
As an emergency measure, patients have been given information on the disease.
A helpline has also been set up for family and friends concerned about patients.
Legionnaires' is a form of pneumonia and can be contracted by inhaling mist from baths and showers although the most common cause of the disease is contaminated air conditioning systems.
Steve Peak, director of operations at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “An individual person has been re-admitted to hospital with Legionnaires Disease.
“It's possible it could be hospital acquired or acquired outside.
“We have flushed the water system through with chemicals as that is the only way the patient could have caught the disease.
“But it was a precaution as we have no evidence whatsoever that this organism is within our system.
“It's not passed from person to person.”
Dr Sean Elyan, medical director at the trust, said: “The Health Protection Agency and Environmental Health officials are carrying out an investigation.
“They will look at where the patient has been during the past 14 days.
“Water systems are being checked and temperatures monitored to see if there was any potential for organisms to develop.
“We admit a handful of cases of Legionnaires each year as does every hospital in the country.”
Coun Andrew Gravells (C, Abbey), chairman of Gloucestershire's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said: “This is potentially very serious, and I will be watching developments here very closely.
“I have also asked the Hospital Trust how many outbreaks of Legionnaires there have been in Gloucestershire hospitals over the last three years, as none have ever been reported to our committee.”
In January showers at Stroud's Stratford Park Leisure Centre tested positive for the legionella bacteria.
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