Three British pensioners are
seriously ill in France after contracting Legionnaires'
disease while on a European coach tour.
The three women were among
passengers on two separate trips heading to Austria
when they picked up the potentially fatal bug.
The two women, from the Christchurch
area of Dorset, who have not been named, are said
to be in a critical condition in a hospital in Colmar
in the Alsace region of France.
They set off from Britain
on September 16.
The third woman, Felicity
Lodge, 65, from Melksham, Wiltshire, is being treated
at the same hospital after falling ill and collapsing
on the last day of her holiday, which had started
on September 21. Her condition is said to be serious.
Tour operator Wallace Arnold
Holidays says investigations are now focusing on
a hotel in Belgium where both parties are thought
to have stayed early last week on route to the Austrian
Alps.
A spokesman for Wallace Arnold
confirmed the passengers are suffering from Legionnaire's
Disease.
"All three passengers,
from the Dorset and Wiltshire areas, are being treated
at a hospital in the Alsace region of France where
their conditions are described as very poorly.
"The matter is specifically
being investigated by the French health authority,
the body responsible for identifying the source,
and we are awaiting their findings.
"All relevant information
has also been passed to the European Working Group
for Legionella Infections, in London."
