Poorly maintained spa pools could be a breeding ground for Legionnaires’ disease, experts have warned. The Health Protection Agency is calling for mandatory testing of spa pools, the high temperatures of which are said to be ideal for the legionella bacterium. The HPA’s annual conference will be told tests on 88 spa pools revealed that 23 contained the bacterium. Sixteen of the 23 had already passed tests for the accepted safety levels of microbiological contamination. During 2003, there were 27 cases of Legionnaires’ disease in England where spa pools were identified as the source of infection, with three deaths.
