Australia issues health warning for Sydney after deadly disease hospitalizes six

NSW Health has advised people who have been in the area in the past 10 days — numbering many hundreds of thousands — to be on the lookout for symptoms of the disease, including fever, chills, cough and shortness of breath.

Legionnaires' disease can lead to severe chest infections, such as pneumonia.

Public health physician Vicky Sheppeard said symptoms can develop up to 10 days after exposure to the bacteria, often caused by contaminated water particles in cooling systems entering the air and being breathed in.

"Those most at risk include elderly people, people with underlying lung or other serious health conditions, and smokers," Sheppeard said.

Authorities are reviewing maintenance records for cooling towers to prioritise inspections and sampling to trace the source.

More than 100 people developed the disease after an outbreak from cooling towers in Melbourne in August.

Two people, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 90s, died.

At least seven people were hospitalised from a Sydney outbreak in January 2024, while another three were diagnosed with the disease from an outbreak near The University of Sydney a month later.

The disease is not spread from person to person but has a fatality rate of about 10 per cent.