Legionnaire's disease comes from the legionella bacterium of which there are 35 different varieties. They thrive in an aquatic environment such as the water-cooling towers that form part of large air conditioning units for big building complexes. The disease starts off with flu-like symptoms that quickly escalate into very high fever, vomiting, diarrhea and pneumonia. Blood and sputum tests are needed to find out whether legionella or some other bacteria caused the pneumonia.
The disease responds well to erythromycin and rifampin, but it's even better not to contract it in the first place. Since the germs can be inhaled in tiny drops of water in the atmosphere, the water towers must be kept clean of stagnant water and the drift eliminators in water towers must be examined to make sure they fit properly. There must be no break between the ducts in the air conditioning system and the cooling tower to let in fine drift spray to the air conditioning system itself. Fresh air intakes should be located far enough away from cooling towers that any contaminated spray drift cannot reach them.
The water should be kept clean of scale and algae that encourages the growth of legionella. Certain disinfectants such as chlorine and ammonia products seem effective in controlling legionella in lab tests, but their effectiveness in practice is not proven.
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