10 dead in Quebec Legionnaire’s disease outbreak

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A Legionnaire’s disease outbreak in Quebec City has killed 10 people since late July, health authorities in the francophone Canadian city said in an updated toll.

A total of 165 people have so far been diagnosed with the disease, which poses a risk for people with weak immune systems but can be treated with antibiotics.

The regional DRSP health authorities noted that the most recent count included cases reported over the past 10 to 15 days, as Legionnaire’s has an incubation period of two to 10 days.

DRSP has launched an investigation to determine the cause of the outbreak.

Health authorities suspect improper maintenance of cooling units in air conditioning systems are at fault for the outbreak.

Legionella bacteria grow in stagnant water in such appliances, then spread with droplets expelled by the system during operation.

Legionnaire’s disease — discovered in 1976 during a veterans convention in the United States, where 29 people died — is an infection that causes high fever, dry cough and pneumonia.

Source :- Health Yahoo

What is Legionnaire’s disease
Legionaire’s disease or called Legionellosis is a potentially fatal infectious disease caused by gram negative, aerobic bacteria belonging to the genus Legionella. It cause by a ubiquitous aquatic organism that thrives in temperatures between 25 and 45 Celcisus. Legionnaires disease takes two distinct forms :-

1. Legionnaires disease. It is the more severe form of the infection and produces high fever and pneumonia.
2. Pontiac fever Caused by the same bacteria but produces a milder respiratory illness without pneumonia that resembles acute influenza. Pontiac fever also has a spontaneous resolution

Sign and symptoms
Patients with Legionnaires’ disease usually have fever, chills, and a cough, which may be dry or may produce sputum. Some patients also have muscle aches, headache, tiredness, loss of appetite, loss of coordination (ataxia), and occasionally diarrhea and vomiting. Confusion and impaired cognition may also occur [8], as can a so-called ‘relative bradycardia’, i.e. low or low normal heart rate despite the presence of a fever. [9] Laboratory tests may show that patients’ renal functions, liver functions and electrolytes are deranged, including hyponatremia. Chest X-rays often show pneumonia with bi-basal consolidation. It is difficult to distinguish Legionnaires’ disease from other types of pneumonia by symptoms or radiologic findings alone; other tests are required for diagnosis.
Persons with Pontiac fever experience fever and muscle aches without pneumonia. They generally recover in 2 to 5 days without treatment.
The time between the patient’s exposure to the bacterium and the onset of illness for Legionnaires’ disease is 2 to 10 days; for Pontiac fever, it is shorter, generally a few hours to 2 days.

Source :- Wikipedia

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