In Poland, a lot of people are getting sick and some are dying from a bacteria called Legionella. The officials are trying to find out where this infection is coming from.
In a city called Rzeszow in the southeastern part of Poland, the local health people said that 11 people have died after getting sick from Legionella bacteria.
“We know of 144 people who got sick and 11 who passed away,” said Adam Sidor, a health person in charge. The people who died were between 64 and 95 years old, and they were already dealing with other health problems.
“We’re trying to figure out where the pollution is coming from. Right now, we’re checking the water supply system for hot and cold water,” added Sidor.
“We can’t say for sure yet if the water is what’s making people sick,” the health person said. “We’ll know more in the next few days.”
From the first tests they did, they found Legionella bacteria in some of the water samples they collected. Out of the first 18 samples they looked at, half of them had the bacteria. They tested a total of 105 samples.
During the weekend, the authorities in Rzeszow, which is a city with 200,000 people, cleaned the water system more to try and fix the problem.
Legionnaires’ disease is a really bad lung infection caused by bacteria. People can get it by drinking water that has the bacteria or by breathing in the bacteria from things like air conditioners.