Legionnaires' spreads to government

Australian health authorities have tested hundreds

Australian Finance Minister John Fahey has confirmed that he is among the victims of one of the country's worst outbreaks of legionnaires' disease.

Legionnaires' disease

Form of bacterial pneumonia

Identified after outbreak at 1976 American Legion meeting

Spread mainly by water droplets in air

Mr Fahey waited until after the federal budget was unveiled on Tuesday night before announcing that he had been suffering from the disease for the past week.

"On medical advice, he is spending the next few days recuperating at home," his office said in a statement.

"He is expected to make a full recovery and be back at work in the near future."

Mr Fahey is expected to make a full recovery

More than 80 people have so far contracted the disease after visiting a new aquarium in the southern city of Melbourne. The outbreak has been traced to air conditioning cooling towers there which were disinfected a fortnight ago.

Two elderly women have died and seven others are still in a critical condition in hospital.

Many key figures from Australia's ruling Liberal Party, including Prime Minister John Howard, were checked after they attended a function at the aquarium on 14 April.

Unlike Mr Fahey, Mr Howard has been given the all-clear.

World-wide alert

Legionnaires' produces flu-like symptoms which include headaches, fevers, chills and muscle aches, followed by respiratory problems and pneumonia.

The disease is fatal in about 10% of cases. Its 10-day incubation period is now over.

The legionella bacterium lives in water systems

Infection cannot be spread from person to person and is usually acquired through breathing in very fine droplets of water which contain the legionella bacteria, such as spray drifts which are vented off from air conditioning towers.

The Australian authorities issued a world-wide health alert last week because an unknown number of tourists had visited the new attraction in mid-April - when it posed a health risk.

Australia's most fatal outbreak of legionnaires' was in the New South Wales town of Wollongong in 1987, when 10 people died.

The disease is so-called because it was first discovered after an outbreak that killed 34 people at a 1976 American Legion convention in the United States.