Nineteen people are suffering from legionnaire's disease after an outbreak at a hospital, a health trust said today.

A further 11 people in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, are suspected of having the disease and up to 100 more could have been infected, Ian Cumming, chief executive of the Morecambe Bay hospitals trust said.

A team has been set up to investigate the cause of the outbreak at the Furness general hospital in Barrow and is investigating whether a contaminated air-conditioning unit is to blame.

Legionnaire's disease, which can be fatal, got its name in 1976 when there was an outbreak of pneumonia among people attending an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Twenty nine legionnaires died.

The disease is a form of pneumonia caused by bacteria which live in water droplets. It breeds in warm, moist conditions and in most major outbreaks the source of infection has been the water in the air-conditioning system in large public buildings.

Young people generally make a full recovery, but elderly, unfit people can die from the illness.