What is the epidemic of legionaries’ disease who killed two people in New York?
Fifty -eight people were infected – and two died – in an epidemic of legionaries’ disease – a type of serious pneumonia caused by a bacteria commonly associated with air conditioning systems and cooling towers
An electronic micrography with improved transmission (TEM) of the bacteria which causes the disease of legionaries (Legionella pneumophia).
An little -known disease called legionaries disease infected at least 58 people in the central district of Harlem in New York in the past two weeks. Two people died during the epidemic, which was linked to cooling towers which tested positive for the bacteria prior to the disease Legionella pneumophilaAccording to a statement from city health officials on August 4.
The disease is severe pneumonia and one of the two infections caused by gender bacteria Legionella, According to the centers for Disease Control and Prevention American. (Bacteria can also cause a softer disease called Pontiac fever, which can manifest with fever, muscle ailments and headache.) When diagnosed early, legionaries can be successfully treated with antibiotics.
Health care providers report approximately 6,000 cases of legionaries disease each year in the United States, although some cases are probably wrong as other types of pneumonia. In addition, infection often does not cause symptoms in healthy people. People aged 50 or over, as well as current or old smokers and people with underlying pulmonary or immune problems are the most vulnerable to legionaries. The disease has become five times more widespread between 2000 and 2018 for reasons that experts found it difficult to identify.
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Legionaries generally do not spread directly between people; Instead, people catch infection by inhaling the mist that contains the pathogen. The bacteria prospered particularly in stagnant water between 77 and 113 degrees Fahrenheit (25 and 45 degrees Celsius). Water systems such as cooling towers, large air conditioning systems, spas and swirls can then aerosolize the microbe, which makes bacterial control in these types of structures a vital prevention measure.
When the current epidemic was identified for the first time, New York health officials led an investigation into all the cooling towers of the affected district. These towers evaporate the water to dispel heat, and they are a common characteristic in the large buildings of the city. But such structures have been known for a long time to cause epidemics of the largest legionaries ever recorded. New York city laws require cooling towers to be recorded, tested and disinfected regularly to reduce the presence of Legionella bacteria.
The legionaries were identified for the first time during a convention of the department of Pennsylvania of the American Legion (hence the name) which was held in late July 1976. Scientists who helped identify the Legionella The bacteria which caused an epidemic among at least 221 people to the Convention called the work of detective “one of the most important and most complex surveys of an ever undertaken epidemic” in an article published in the October 1979 issue of American scientist.
Scientists had to exclude potential causes, including pathogens of food origin and metal poisoning, among other challenges, before successfully identifying the previously unknown bacteria. Simultaneously, the investigators have traveled reports on other mysterious and recent epidemics of pneumonial diseases, bringing together an image of an infection which “turned out to be very rare after all,” wrote the researchers in their 1979 article.
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