According to Fox New York channel, New York City health officials said on the 25th local time that the outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the Bronx District of New York has killed one person, and there are currently 19 confirmed cases. The health department of New York City said that four cooling towers in the Bronx District tested positive for Legionella, and the local government has ordered the disinfection of these towers. Health commissioner Vasan pointed out that there have been 19 confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease, including one death and eight hospitalizations.
Legionella disease, also known as Legionella disease, is a zoonotic infectious disease. As the name suggests, it is caused by a disease called Legionella. The disease first broke out in the American Veterans Association in 1976, so the bacterium is called Legionnaires' disease bacterium, or Legionella for short. In other words, the pathogen of this disease is bacteria, not viruses like COVID-19 and monkeypox.
By name, the disease is an acute respiratory infectious disease that attacks human lungs. However, Legionnaires' disease also has a non pneumonia type, known as Pontiac fever; There are also Legionella pneumoniae, called Legionella pneumophila. Legionella generally mentioned refers to pneumonia
Generally speaking, the incubation period of pneumonia Legionnaires' disease is 2 ~ 10 days. The precursor symptoms are fatigue, headache and muscle soreness, and the fever suddenly occurs within 1 ~ 2 days, even up to 40 ℃. The vast majority of patients will have the symptoms of cough. At first, it is dry cough, followed by expectoration, and even hemoptysis in special cases.
The early symptoms of Legionnaires' disease are actually quite common, similar to many other diseases, which will lead to some misdiagnosis. Once treatment is delayed due to misdiagnosis or other reasons, the disease will worsen. The fatality rate of Legionnaires' disease is very high, up to 25% ~ 30%, and 40% in some cases!
The most suitable living and environment for Legionella is in warm water with a temperature of 35 ℃ ~ 45 ℃, which rarely appears in water with a temperature of less than 20 ℃. Therefore, they usually like to live in surface water, water pipelines, soil and lake or river water polluted by thermal wastewater. Especially the air conditioning system and shower facilities are their favorite places. Legionella can survive for 415 days in tap water and 139 days in distilled water.
Water pollution is an important way of Legionella transmission. Legionella disease has been detected in hospital drinking water, shower nozzle, air-conditioning condensate and cooling tower water. In history, 91 people were infected with Legionella disease and 3 died in air-conditioning cooling tower polluted by Legionella. This is because the cooling tower water contains inorganic salts, organics and other substances and other microorganisms, which is very suitable for the growth of Legionella and provides another form of transmission - aerosol