A postmortem was carried out yesterday on the body of a man who was being treated for Legionnaire's disease at a Dublin hospital. He died at the weekend.
The man was one of two residents of a long-stay unit for the intellectually disabled at Stewarts Hospital in Palmerstown who were found to have contracted the disease earlier this summer.
One of those who became infected recovered fully, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said. However, the second was "almost recovered" when his condition deteriorated on Friday night. He died on Saturday.
The man had both physical and mental disabilities and it will not be known until the results of the postmortem become available whether Legionnaire's was a factor in his death.
The cases first came to the attention of the HSE eastern region's public health department in July, but details of them did not come into the public domain until last Friday.
At that point the HSE said its public health staff, in conjunction with environmental health officers, had carried out a full investigation and the hospital's water system was "fully flushed and sanitised".
Yesterday in a statement the HSE said: "These cases related to a unit for people with intellectual disability. As is routine, a thorough investigation of the cases was carried out by HSE specialists in public health medicine and by HSE environmental health officers, working in close partnership with the unit concerned."
Legionnaire's disease is a form of pneumonia caused by legionnella bacteria, which can grow in warm water, like the kind found in hot tubs, hot water tanks, large plumbing systems, and air-conditioning systems.