An investigation is underway tonight following the death of middle-aged woman from Legionnaires' Disease at Waterford Regional Hospital.
The woman is believed to have acquired the severe pneumonia while a patient at the hospital after she had been admitted with a different illness some days ago.
The patient - whose identity is being withheld - was diagnosed with the illness last Monday and died yesterday.
It is believed she could have contracted the disease from a shower at the hospital.
The South Eastern Health Board (SEHB) said it was an isolated case and there is no immediate danger to other patients, staff or visitors in the hospital.
The circumstances surrounding the case are being investigated by the SEHB and the National Disease Surveillance Centre has also been informed.
Legionnaires' Disease is fatal in about 10 per cent of cases.
The death of a woman from Legionnaires' Disease is a matter of serious concern requiring urgent action from the authorities, said Labour spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus.
"It will be a further blow to morale in a health service already reeling from a series of crisis and ongoing chronic mismanagement," she said.
"The immediate indications are that the infection was acquired in the hospital," the South Eastern health board said in a statement.
Officials said it was a "single, isolated case" and that nobody else was thought to have been infected.
Dr Mary Hickey, a consultant at the hospital, said the patient's room had been closed off for investigations to take place.
"We have no reason to suspect that this is anything other than an individual isolated case at present," she told Irish radio.
"There are no indications that there is any reason to suspect that there is a more widespread problem in the hospital."
She said patients in the hospital were not informed last week but all the necessary staff were told.
"We have put a full range of measures in place to assure people that there is no reason to be alarmed," she added.
Fine Gael health spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mitchell, called on Health Minister Mr Micheal Martin to give full details about the case.
Ms Mitchell said: "If the Minister has learnt anything from the shambles of last week's handling of the SARS case it is that he must come clean.
"Nothing less than full disclosure of facts of this tragic case will satisfy the public, who are already in a state of near panic as the health service lurches from one crisis to another, due to Minister Martin's incompetence."
The death of a woman from Legionnaires' Disease is a matter of serious concern requiring urgent action from the authorities, said Labour spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus.
"Itwill be a further blow to morale in a health service already reeling fromaseries of crisis and ongoing chronic mismanagement," she said.