title: [A community outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Barcelona: epidemiologic and environmental study].
abstract: The investigation of the outbreak of legionellosis which developed in Barcelona in February 1988 included: 1) a case-control study, with the patients with Legionella pneumophila pneumonia (n = 56) and those with pneumonia by other organisms (n = 109) in the Hospital Clínic i Provincial (HCP); 2) a review of refrigeration towers and the water supply system; 3) a meteorological study, and 4) a survey of the construction works being carried out in the HCP area. The cases lived in the urban district 2 more often than the controls (odds ratio = 3.73, 95% confidence intervals 1.8-7.6), and were not associated with hospitals of hotels. L. pneumophila was not recovered from the environmental samples. The temperatures were unusually high, with a low air humidity. In the area near the HCP demolition materials were frequently removed. A causative focus was not detected; it cannot be ruled out, however, that the source of the outbreak was the removal of demolition materials in the affected area on the days preceding the epidemic outbreak.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Caylà
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Plasencia
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Beneyto
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sureda
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Llorens
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Batalla
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007877:Legionnaires' Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D014871:Water Microbiology
vernacular_title: Brote comunitario de enfermedad de los legionarios en Barcelona: investigación epidemiológica y medioambiental.