Epidemic Legionnaires' disease. Airborne transmission down a chimney

Autor: J D, Band, M, LaVenture, J P, Davis, G F, Mallison, P, Skaliy, P S, Hayes, W L, Schell, H, Weiss, D J, Greenberg, D W, Fraser
Rok vydání: 1981
Předmět:
Zdroj: JAMA. 245(23)
ISSN: 0098-7484
Popis: Between June 18 and July 9, 1979, Legionnaires' disease (LD) developed in 13 persons who had visited a hotel complex in Wisconsin. All had visited the part of the hotel that contains the restaurants and meeting rooms (building A). Legionnaires' disease occurred in 1% who had been exclusively in the meeting rooms and in 0.1% who had eaten only at the hotel restaurants. Furthermore, 1.5% exposed to meeting room 1 and none of those exposed only to the other meeting rooms had LD. Legionella pneumophila was isolated from water in the cooling tower on top of building A. Located within 5 m downwind of the cooling-tower exhaust, a chimney with an open damper allowed cooling-tower exhaust (as demonstrated by air tracer studies) to enter meeting room 1 via the fireplace. Although cases did not occur after the cooling-tower water was treated by continuous hyperchlorination and the chimney was sealed, a seven-day lag occurred between treatment and elimination of the organism from the tower water.
Databáze: OpenAIRE