Wrapping Up With the History

So, like I said in the first post, the mystery and history behind this microorganism is the reason why I chose to research and blog about it. Here is what I found out! Legionella pneumophila was first discovered in 1976 after a mystery outbreak among 221 individuals attending a convention in Philadelphia—all staying at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel (Denenea, J., 2018). The major symptom consistent in each individual who fell victim to the outbreak was pneumonia; an infection of the lungs. Symptoms of pneumonia include high fever, chest pain, difficulty breathing, and coughing (Denenea, J., 2018). Symptoms began to appear as soon as one day after the outbreak occurred, but by the time it was no longer spreading, there were 34 casualties (Denenea, J., 2018).

So, after making sure everyone was safe and healthy, it was imperative for scientists to figure out the root of the problem. During this time, people thought it was a hoax, poisoning, extra-terrestrial attack, and plenty of other reasons, but scientists ruled out all of the rumors including swine flu. It took them six entire months, but the CDC eventually found Legionellato be the cause of the epidemic after investigation and experimentation. It was found that the Legionellawas being spread through the hotels air conditioning system; it is not spread via person-to-person contact. With this newly discovered bacterium, scientists could now look back and figure out the reason for many similar, unexplained outbreaks in previous years; unfortunately, it had to be at the cost of one of the most lethal outbreaks of the 20^thcentury (Denenea, J., 2018). Legionella outbreaks were then found to be the source of outbreaks from, 1965, 1968, 1973, 1974, 1975, and 1976 from places all around the world (Denenea, J., 2018). This epidemic was then named by the CDC as Legionnaires’ disease in 1977. Since then, there have still been cases of Legionnaires’ disease, but not nearly as often or as lethal. Today, antibiotics are available to treat infection, and places like hospitals, hotels, cooling towers, etc. have been informed on which measures to take to avoid the outbreaks from occurring. Mystery solved!

If you have time, and are interested, here is an entire documentary telling the story of how this little microorganism caused one of the greatest epidemics in American history!

References:

Denenea, J. (2018, August 13). The History of Legionnaires Disease Cases and Outbreaks. Retrieved from https://thelegionnaireslawyer.com/history-legionnaires-disease/