An outbreak of Legionnaires' pneumonia in a nursing home.
An outbreak of Legionnaires' pneumonia occurred at a nursing home in December 1990. A 79-year-old female and a 73-year-old male clerk who were staying at the nursing home developed pneumonia with only a 5-day interval. Legionella pneumophila serogroup I was isolated from transtracheal aspirate of the former and sputum of the latter. After treatment with a combination of erythromycin and rifampicin both patients improved. Serological surveillance of inpatients and staff of the nursing home was performed in February 1991. Seven out of 51 samples (14.0%) showed a titer higher than 1:128 of anti-Legionella pneumophila serogroup I antibody determined by indirect immunofluorescence; two of these seven complained of respiratory symptoms. Molecular epidemiology analyzed by restriction endonuclease digestion of isolated L. pneumophila showed an identical pattern which suggested a common origin.
Maesaki
S
S
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Japan.
Kohno
S
S
Koga
H
H
Kaku
M
M
Yoshitomi
Y
Y
Yamada
H
H
Matsuda
H
H
Higashiyama
Y
Y
Hara
K
K
Seto
M
M
D000368:Aged; D000389:Air Conditioning / Q000009:adverse effects; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D016952:Legionella pneumophila / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007877:Legionnaires' Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D009735:Nursing Homes; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014871:Water Microbiology
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial