Lessons from Legionnaires' disease.

R P Hudson

doi:10.7326/0003-4819-90-4-704

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Lessons from Legionnaires' disease.

R P Hudson

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Abstract

In July 1976 a pneumonialike epidemic from a previously unrecognized microorganism erupted among Legionnaires who had attended a meeting in Philadelphia. There were an estimated 182 cases, in which 29 patients died. Among other things the episodes shows that even in a medically sophisticated industrialized nation, a bacterical pathogen can produce a small epidemic and defy identification for almost 6 months. One historical implication of the event is the need to consider the possibility of a return of large-scale epidemic disease rivaling the sweeps of bubonic plague in fourteenth-century Europe. Such epidemics could occur through any of a variety of microorganismic mechanisms recognized as operating at the present time. It is suggested that humans would react to such a disaster much as their progenitors did centuries ago.

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Disease Outbreaks Europe History, Medieval Humans Legionnaires' Disease Plague United States Historical Article Journal Article

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R P Hudson. 1979. Lessons from Legionnaires' disease.. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-90-4-704

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