Stoke-on-Trent Legionnaires' disease patient dies

One person has died after an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Staffordshire, officials have said.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) also confirmed another case of the disease in Stoke-on-Trent, bringing the total number to 16.

A spokesman for the University Hospital of North Staffordshire (UHNS), where most of the patients are being treated, said most were stable or improving.

A patient in a Leicester hospital is in a critical but stable condition.

The HPA said it would not be giving out any further details of the patient, who died earlier, and also said it would await a cause of death from the coroner.

Three discharged

A spokeswoman said all those who had been affected were aged between their late 40s and mid-70s.

A hospital spokeswoman said the trust is currently treating 11 patients, all of whom are in a stable or improving condition. Three patients have been discharged.

The patient in the Leicester hospital had been transferred from the UHNS earlier.

The HPA has previously said it was continuing to work with the Health and Safety Executive, the NHS in Stoke-on-Trent and the city council to try and find the source of the outbreak.

It said the disease was not hospital-related and it was safe for patients to attend the UHNS.