Several people have been hospitalised, including some in intensive care. Authorities have not found the source of infection, but are focused on links to Melbourne's northern and western suburbs.
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00:00It's this industrial area that authorities believe could be the source of an outbreak.
00:07Very sadly, one person, a lady in her 90s, has died after contracting Legionnaire's disease.
00:13There are currently 60 confirmed cases and 10 suspected cases.
00:18Most are adults over 40.
00:2059 of the confirmed cases and 7 of the suspected cases have been hospitalised.
00:27There is a chance we will continue to see cases continue to come in over subsequent days
00:32and part of that is because we know there is an incubation period.
00:35It's believed the outbreak originated from a cooling tower
00:39and that the tower is located somewhere in North Laverton and Deremet, west of Melbourne.
00:45There are more than 100 towers in the area
00:48and authorities hope that by the end of the day they'll have disinfected and tested close to 60.
00:54I am confident that there's a high likelihood we've already visited the source.
00:58It's unusual to see an outbreak like this.
01:01Authorities believe the disease has been spread further by wind
01:05and a high concentration of Legionella in the cooling tower.
01:09The other unusual thing is that a lot of people have ended up in hospital
01:12so they seem to be quite seriously ill
01:15and that might suggest they've inhaled a larger dose of Legionella
01:19or there's something inherently more virulent about this particular strain.
01:23It's the biggest outbreak since 2000 when 125 cases were traced to the Melbourne Aquarium.
01:30Doctors are urging Melbournians to look out for symptoms including cough and fever.
01:35Many of these infectious respiratory illnesses present with very similar symptoms.
01:39There's some that skew us one way or the other but ultimately it comes down to testing.
01:44Testing that could prevent serious illness.
01:53.