Legionnaire's Disease

The book “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, written by John M. Barry, covers the progression of the Spanish influenza, especially in the United States. Barry focuses not only on the influenza itself, though, but also on the social influences that allowed the virus to flourish. The book covers how medical practices in the United States had risen up just in time to combat the virus, but, due to societal issues and the war, the doctors struggled in areas where they should have been successful.

In 1793 Philadelphia suffered from a deadly disease that spread all through the town; it was called yellow fever. The Philadelphia Doctors and the French doctors were attempting to treat yellow fever. The doctors had many ways to try to fix this, but they did not have the technology we do today. Yellow fever occurred 1793. The outbreak happened in Philadelphia. This sad event that killed many people was all because of infected mosquitoes. They came over with the ill refuges. About 2,000 to 5,000 people died. All in all, this was one of the one of the worst things to occur in history

In Philadelphia, 1793, a disease that haunted and still haunts America to this day was the yellow fever. It was caused by a little but deadly mosquito called aedes. It spread this disease to many people and it killed around 5,000 people per town. It was the most deadly plague in American history. Some say it was like the black plague. I’ll be talking about why it’s called the Yellow Fever, how did it spread, how it got to America, how it affected the capital, about our local area back then, the people who were trying to help fight it, and the first hospital ever built.

The number of documented cases has been rising every year. “This may be due to the aging population, the increased longevity of people with chronic disease, the spread of antibiotic-resistant organisms, an upsurge in invasive procedures and broader use of immunosuppressive and chemotherapeutic agents” (National Institute of General Medical Sciences, 2014). The mortality rate for sepsis ranges from about thirty percent for patients with sepsis to fifty percent in patients who develop septic shock. Mortality rate varies as to how many organs have been affected. Twenty percent mortality for one organ failure, forty percent for two organs failing, sixty-five to seventy percent for three failed organs, and seventy-five to eighty-five percent when four or more organs have failed. The cost related to sepsis is about seventeen billion dollars per year (about twenty-two thousand dollars per patient), which is six times greater than the cost of patients without sepsis.

Every year in the U.S., between 8,000 to 18,000 people are hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease. When people catch Legionnaires’ disease, they start to develop headaches, muscle aches, and a high fever that can lead to as high as 104° or 105°.The disease can naturally be found in hot tubs, decorative fountains, and in cooling towers.

Case fatality rate can be as high as 30% for untreated patients. With quick diagnosis and proper treatment fatalities are extremely rare. The most

The book The Great Influenza by John Barry takes us back to arguably one of the greatest medical disasters in human history, the book focuses on the influenza pandemic which took place in the year 1918. The world was at war in the First World War and with everyone preoccupied with happenings in Europe and winning the war, the influenza pandemic struck when the human race was least ready and most distracted by happenings all over the world. In total the influenza pandemic killed over a hundred million people on a global scale, clearly more than most of the deadliest diseases in modern times. John Barry leaves little to imagination in his book as he gives a vivid description of the influenza pandemic of 1918 and exactly how this pandemic affected the human race. The book clearly outlines the human activities that more or less handed the human race to the influenza on a silver platter. “There was a war on, a war we had to win” (Barry, p.337). An element of focus in the book is the political happenings back at the time not only in the United States of America but also all over the world and how politicians playing politics set the way for perhaps the greatest pandemic in human history to massacre millions of people. The book also takes an evaluator look at the available medical installations and technological proficiencies and how the influenza pandemic has affected medicine all over the world.

A man named Osler suffered from the influenza for about 3 months. His most recent biographer believes he could have lived if he was under the care of Johns Hopkins Hospital. They might have saved him. On September 20, 1919 many of the best scientists gathered up. They had to be prepared. It was epidemic and was rapidly spreading. In just eight weeks in early 1920, there were 11,000 deaths that occurred in New York and Chicago. A man named John Dill Robertson who had been deeply concerned about this deathly virus organized 3,000 of the most professional nurses throughout the entire city. Whenever an influenza case was developed, that victim’s home was tagged. On January 22, a man named Dr. Paul Turner wanted to enforce absolute quarantine. A few years

This sort of environment was the perfect place for the Spanish influenza to begin its deadly streak. On March 11, the first cases of the Spanish flu showed up. The doctors did not worry; they believed it was just the flu. However, case after case of influenza came in, and by the week’s end, 522 people were sick. In the end, 48 soldiers died of influenza, and all their deaths were listed as pneumonia because of their frightening symptoms: labored breathing, violent coughs and nosebleeds, high fever, fluid filling the lungs, etc. However, quite suddenly, the influenza disappeared from Fort Riley (Iezzoni 23-24) and followed the path forged by the soldiers rushing to World War 1. It eventually spread around the world (Billings 2).

Legionnaires' disease is a severe bacterial pneumonia first identified after an outbreak at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia in 1976, but earlier cases have been confirmed as far back as 1947. The article, A Belated Look at New York’s Cooling Towers, Prime Suspect in Legionnaires’ Outbreak written by Winnie Hu and Noah Remnnick, is about what New York City is doing to prevent further spread of the Legionnaires' disease. It was first named Legionella pneumophila and later changed to legionellosis. Since the city's first confirmed case in 1977, in the South Bronx alone, the disease has infected almost 100 people and killed eight as of this writing. Sadly, it took the largest and deadliest outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in New

Legionaries' Disease was formed in the summer of 1976, When a sudden outbreak of a severe disease occurred at the American Legion Convention in the Philadelphia. The outcome of the convention was horrendous, 200 people became ill and 29 fell to the disease. A team of scientists from the Center for Disease Control came to a rushed conclusive observation at the time that the disease had symptoms similar to a disease called pneumonia, The disease was not transmitted person to person, All victims at the time had visited the same hotel in a ten day period or were within 10 blocks from the vicinity, The only area that all victims had been was the hotel lobby concluding that no

Someone can get this disease through breathing in mist from water that contains the legionella bacteria. The bacteria can not spread from person to person, therefore it is not contagious. Unfortunately, by simply breathing in a water droplet that happens to contain the bacteria, a person can get infected with Legionnaires’

A poignant example made headlines this month when an outbreak of legionnaires’ disease infected Disneyland visitors in Anaheim, California. The Happiest Place on Earth had to shut down two cooling towers after twelve people contacted the illness, nine of which had visited the park in September, according to the Los Angeles Times. The other cases were people who lived or traveled in Anaheim. In total, 10 people were hospitalized and one person who had not visited Disneyland died.

Legionnaires’ disease is a form of pneumonia which is caused by Legionella bacteria. Legionella bacteria was first identified in 1976 as a cause of pneumonia. This bacteria can account for 2-15% of total number of pneumonia cases requiring hospitalization in the United States. There are around 40 types of Legionella. Around 10 to 40 thousand people in the U.S. develop Legionnaires’ disease every year. People over 50 years of age are more likely to become ill from this disease. A greater risk is involved in people who suffer from certain health conditions such as diabetes, kidney disease, lung disease and or malignancy. Studies have shown people with AIDs and HIV infection do not seem to contract this disease.

In the spring of 1918, the first wave of one of the deadliest influenza pandemics began plaguing its victims (Peters, ix). Over the span of three lethal waves, the pandemic claimed approximately forty million victims, eradicating nearly twenty percent of the entire world’s population, or about one out of five individuals (Peters, ix). To make matters more dire, the ill-suited medical community was exceptionally unprepared for such a wide-scale pandemic: Doctors had very basic tools, knew little about diseases, and had no experience with vaccinations or prevention (Peters, 1-5; “The 1920s: Medicine and Health: Overview”, n.p.). People blindly faced the epidemic, relying on folk remedies such as consuming wine, drinking antiseptic, and