Thanks for tuning in to this third lecture in this ongoing series about pneumonia.

While over 100 microbes can cause pneumonia, it is challenging to cover them all.

There are some organisms that are not only particularly unique, but also particularly common, and we'll try to cover those.

Legionella is one of those organisms.

Legionella pneumophilia, also known as Legioneer's disease, is an organism that you see more than you think you do. It's one of the most

common causes of bacterial community-acquired pneumonia, depending on the source you read. It seems that

about 5 to 10% of

your pneumonia patients have Legionella.

Air conditioners were the culprit in the outbreak of Legionnaires disease in Philadelphia in

1976.

There once was a police commissioner from Philadelphia named Frank Rizzo who said,

The streets are safe in Philadelphia.

It's only the people that make them unsafe.

And back in 1976, there was another unsafe place to be in Philadelphia, and it wasn't the streets.

A large outbreak of pneumonia occurred among folks attending a convention

of the American Legion at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. Of the 182 reported

cases of Legionella pneumonia that were acquired during the convention, 29 of those patients died.

That's about 15% of those who got pneumonia at the convention who died,

and indeed it has been subsequently shown that untreated legionella pneumonia

has a mortality of about 15 to 30%.

And for those of you who are not part of the club, the American Legion was chartered by Congress

in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization.

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