Talk:1976 Philadelphia Legionnaires' disease outbreak

"Pontiac Fever" seems to be the name of the much more mild disease caused by the same bacteria
Our lead is currently saying "Legion Fever," which I think is just flat out wrong. For example, please check out this CDC source:


 * https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2018/infectious-diseases-related-to-travel/legionellosis-legionnaires-disease-pontiac-fever

I'd like to get one other source and then make the change.FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 16:22, 4 April 2018 (UTC)


 * I'm confused. The newspapers described the disease as "Legion Fever" back then. You're right that Pontiac Fever is a mild disease, but where does our article say "Pontiac Fever"? CatPath (talk) 17:14, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

Okay, here's a WHO (World Health Organization) page on sickness caused by Legionella bacteria (usually the Legionella pneumophila species). Legionnaires’ disease is serious disease with pneumonia. Pontiac Fever is the more mild sickness.


 * Legionellosis, World Health Organization, 2018. ' .  .  Legionnaires’ disease is an acute bacterial pneumonia with rapid onset of anorexia, malaise, myalgia, headache and rapidly rising fever, progressing to pneumonia, which may lead to respiratory failure and death.  .  '

Maybe "Legion Fever" was a term used in newspapers back then. It does not seem to be a common term in the current medical literature. FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 19:20, 4 April 2018 (UTC)


 * 'Legion Fever' Germ Killed 16 Here in 1965, Washington Post, B. D. Colen January 31, 1977 [Emphasis added]. '  .  .  Some CDC investigators had suspected since it first appeared last August that "Philadelphia fever"  .  .  ' '  .  .  isolated a previously unknown bacteria as the cause of "Legion fever," the disease that claimed 29 lives in Philadelphia last summer,  .  .  '

I think it's fine to include older terms in the body of our article. In fact, I think it helps to place information in a historical context. However, I don't think we should use the older terms in our lead.FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 19:45, 4 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present, Third Edition, George C. Kohn, editor, New York, NY: Facts on File, Inc. (imprint of InfoBase Publishing), 1995, 2001, 2008 [Emphasis added]. ' .  .  One hundred seventy-nine cases of so-called legionnaires' disease or legion fever were reported by August 31, 1976, and 28 of them had been fatal  .  .  '

And yet, this 2008 book writes " . . or legion fever." All I can say is that this does not seem to be the current language of WHO and CDC.FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 21:40, 4 April 2018 (UTC)


 * "Legion Fever" is definitely not the current language in the medical field. The term may be of historical interest though and probably belongs somewhere in the article, though not necessarily in the lead. CatPath (talk) 21:49, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

I largely agree (interesting that the 2008 book still carrying the term forward). I'm going to work on some changes today.FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 17:31, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Please feel free to jump in and make any changes or additions which in your best judgment help to improve our article.FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 20:15, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

1974 'Independent Order of Odd Fellows' Convention — and other earlier events — retroactively diagnosed as being caused by Legionella.

 * 1974 outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease diagnosed in 1977. Clinical and epidemiological features, Lancet, Terranova W, Cohen ML, Fraser DW, July 15, 1978 pages 122-4.

So, Legionnaires was a newly identified disease, but not a new disease. FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 21:36, 5 April 2018 (UTC)


 * LEGIONNAIRE'S DISEASE: 5 YEARS LATER THE MYSTERY IS ALL BUT GONE, New York Times, Harold M. Schmeck, Jr., Jan. 19, 1982. ' .  .  also solved several longbaffling mysteries, including that of an epidemic at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington in 1965, a mysterious disease outbreak in a building in Pontiac, Mich., in 1969 and another that marred an Odd Fellows convention in Philadelphia in 1974.  .  .  ' '  .  .  because infections with Legionella pneumophila usually respond well to erythromycin, an antibiotic that might not be used if the cause of the infection were unknown or misunderstood.  .  '


 * 'Legion Fever' Germ Killed 16 Here in 1965, Washington Post, B. D. Colen, January 31, 1977. ' .  .  mystery disease that swept St. Elizabeths Hospital [in Washington, DC] in July and August, 1965, killing 16 patients and infecting 78 others before running its course.  .  ' '  .  .  Thirteen of the 14 pairs - which Dr. Albert Balows, director of the bacteriology section of CDC's laboratory division, calls "an amazingly high" result - contained the antibodies, indicating that the Philadelphia bacterium is the same micro organism that caused the St. Elizabeths' outbreak.  .  '

More history available in an article from Truly Adventure
More history on the discovery of the bacterium is available at The Source: An American Outbreak of Death and Panic. It provides a lot of details missing from this article.

Jeffrey Walton (talk) 20:32, 29 May 2021 (UTC)