HEALTH experts said last night that a munitions factory where a worker was found with Legionnaires' Disease was unlikely to be the source of the bug.

Bosses at the Royal Ordnance factory in Birtley, near Chester-le-Street, shut down a shell plant after one of its staff was confirmed with the potentially deadly disease.

Officials examined the building yesterday and have all but ruled out the idea that the man caught the disease while at work.

A spokeswoman for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said: "There is absolutely nothing to suggest that he picked up the disease from the Royal Ordnance factory."

The 60-year-old man, who is from Springwell Village, Washington, was taken to hospital on February 23 believed to be suffering from bronchial pneumonia.

But when doctors diagnosed suspected Legionnaires' Disease on Wednesday, management at the factory were alerted.

Fast treatment ensured the man recovered and he is being released from hospital today.

Marilyn Swann, communications manager for BAE Systems, which runs the factory, said: "We can confirm that an employee was diagnosed with Legionnaires' Disease.

"It is uncertain at this stage how he contracted the disease and no other employee has shown any signs or symptoms of the illness.

"The health and safety of our employees is paramount and, as a precaution, the area where the man works has been temporarily shut down.

"We cannot at this stage say how the man contracted the disease and it is, of course, possible that he could have contracted it elsewhere."

A health team is examining the man's home and looking at possibilities of where he contracted the bug. Legionnaires' Disease is passed through tiny water droplets in the air and can be contracted from air conditioning or shower heads.

Dr Bashir Malik, consultant for communicable disease control at Gateshead Primary Care Trust, said it was not an outbreak and there was no reason to panic.

He said: "We do get isolated cases, once or twice a year. We take every single case very seriously and do our utmost to find out where it came from.

"We cannot put our finger yet on where exactly this happened.

"In the majority of single cases, it is extremely difficult to identify where the patient contracted the disease. We may never know.