{"id":118888,"date":"2023-09-23T17:51:39","date_gmt":"2023-09-23T21:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/?p=118888"},"modified":"2023-09-24T11:32:25","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T15:32:25","slug":"legionnaires-disease-continues-to-pose-risk-to-water-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/legionnaires-disease-continues-to-pose-risk-to-water-supply\/","title":{"rendered":"Legionnaires\u2019 Disease Continues to Pose Risk to Water Supply"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Samhar Almomani, Publishing Associate<\/span>: Researcher and Writer<\/span> at Save the Water\u2122 | September 23, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n Legionnaires\u2019 disease may be an unfamiliar disease to many people. Currently, it only infects around 10,000 people per year in the United States. However, <\/span>the number of infections being reported has been on the rise since 2000<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>A recent study<\/span><\/a> estimates that the actual number of infections is 1.8-2.7 times higher than is actually reported. It\u2019s important that we start paying attention to this disease. One reason is that<\/span> one in ten people who get sick from Legionnaires’ disease end up dying from it<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Recently, a<\/span> major Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak was reported. It resulted in the death of 16 people in Poland<\/span><\/a>, with over 150 people hospitalized. This fatal outbreak shows how the disease can spread through municipal water networks and cause infections over a large area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Legionnaires\u2019 disease is a type of pneumonia, or lung infection. It<\/span> often results in serious health outcomes<\/span><\/a>. The infection is caused by <\/span>Legionella<\/span><\/i> bacteria. It\u2019s transmitted <\/span>either through breathing in small water<\/span><\/a> droplets or through swallowing water contaminated with the bacteria. There\u2019s no person-to-person transmission, which makes containment easier.<\/span><\/p>\n Legionnaires\u2019 disease was first observed in the summer of 1976<\/span><\/a> in the city of Philadelphia. It occurred during the Pennsylvania State American Legion, an organization of World War II veterans.\u00a0 <\/span>It was first described as a mysterious epidemic that caused fatal respiratory illness<\/span><\/a>. An investigation ensued. The result was a theory that the cause of the outbreak was from the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel\u2019s air conditioning cooling units. Over 200 people showed severe cold symptoms, and the outbreak took the lives of 29 attendees. The disease was named after the Legion members, the Legionnaires\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n Before the outbreak in Philadelphia,<\/span> there was a 1968 outbreak in Pontiac, Michigan among workers of the city\u2019s health department<\/span><\/a>. Researchers thought it was \u201cPontiac fever.\u201d It wasn\u2019t until the Philadelphia outbreak that researchers realized that <\/span>Legionella<\/span><\/i> is what caused Pontiac fever<\/span><\/a>. The main difference is that Legionnaires\u2019 disease involves pneumonia, while Pontiac fever does not.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to diagnose Legionnaires\u2019 disease, <\/span>as it often shows as common cold symptoms<\/span><\/a>. The disease usually begins with a headache, muscle aches, and\/or a fever that is 104F or higher. On the second or third day of the infection, <\/span>more serious symptoms begin to show<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n Some demographics may suffer more from a Legionnaires\u2019 disease infection<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n There have been a number of Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreaks in the past few weeks. The rising number of infections could signify an increase of outbreaks in the future and a rising number of fatalities.\u00a0 In some cases, the outbreak was small. For example,<\/span> the August outbreak at Las Vegas hotels<\/span><\/a> included two guests at Caesars Palace and one guest at The Orleans Hotel & Casino.<\/span><\/p>\n A smaller outbreak occurred in Lancaster, Pennsylvania<\/span><\/a>. This outbreak was found at the county prison. One inmate tested positive for Legionnaires\u2019 disease and prompted the prison to begin sanitation procedures. It was only one positive case. However, it could have easily spread to a number of other inmates due to the shared water source.<\/span><\/p>\n In other areas, bigger outbreaks occurred. For example, <\/span>there were nine confirmed cases of Legionnaires\u2019 disease in Passaic County and Bergen County in New Jersey<\/span><\/a>. The New Jersey Department of Health receives about 250-375 reports of Legionnaires\u2019 disease infections each year. This means dozens of contaminated water sources.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rising temperatures have been cited as a reason why there may be more Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreaks in the future.<\/span><\/a> Researchers speculate that the recent outbreak in Poland could be tied to rising temperatures in the region. Consequently, it could hint towards a rising number of infections in Europe in the near future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Water management programs that take Legionnaires\u2019 disease into consideration are the key to preventing future outbreaks. <\/span>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sets out seven key elements and four principles<\/span><\/a> for effective water management to control Legionnaires\u2019 disease.<\/span><\/p>\n These elements and principles revolve around creating a water management program team. These teams would be dedicated to ensuring that Legionnaires\u2019 disease does not contaminate water sources. They would have several main duties:<\/span><\/p>\n By Samhar Almomani, Publishing Associate: Researcher and Writer at Save the Water\u2122 | September 23, 2023 Legionnaires\u2019…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12901,"featured_media":118889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,65],"tags":[226,547,561,569],"yst_prominent_words":[732,612,1802,829],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118888"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118913,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118888\/revisions\/118913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118888"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=118888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is Legionnaires’ Disease?<\/span><\/h2>\n
Symptoms of Legionnaires\u2019 Disease<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Recent Outbreaks<\/span><\/h2>\n
Preventing Future Outbreaks<\/span><\/h2>\n
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