Legionnaires’ Disease News and Research

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How can Legionella pneumophila transmit through the hot water plumbing of residences and office buildings?

Researchers investigate the transmission of the causative agent of legionellosis, Legionella pneumophila, through hot water plumbing systems in commercial and residential buildings.

8 Sep 2022

Sporadic Legionnaires’ disease in commercial truck drivers could be attributed to vehicle windshield wiper fluid

A new study examines two cases of Legionnaires’ disease diagnosed via urine antigen test that were reported and linked to windshield wiper fluid contaminated with Legionella spp.

10 Mar 2022

Free SaTScan Software Rapidly Detects Emerging COVID-19 Hotspots in New York City

As an example of precision public health, a new study reports the successful detection of a potential new local COVID-19 case cluster.

23 Jul 2020

BATM introduces three new diagnostic kits for COVID-19 and other respiratory illness

BATM, a leading provider of real-time technologies for networking solutions and medical laboratory systems, announces the launch of three new diagnostic kits to significantly advance the diagnosis of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.

15 Jul 2020

Record number of Legionnaires’ cases in 2018 risk lives, cause cleanup headaches

Cases of Legionnaires' disease reached a record high in 2018 — a more than eight-fold increase since the numbers began to climb nearly two decades ago.

5 Nov 2019

Scientists find surprising insight into Legionnaires’ disease

The incidence of Legionnaires' disease has increased in the past two decades. The natural habitat of Legionella is freshwater biotopes, where they mainly reproduce in amoebae.

24 Jul 2019

Artificial sweetener sucralose worsens gut inflammation in mice with Crohn's disease

In a study that has implications for humans with inflammatory diseases, researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and colleagues have found that, given over a six-week period, the artificial sweetener sucralose, known by the brand name Splenda, worsens gut inflammation in mice with Crohn's-like disease, but had no substantive effect on those without the condition.

15 Mar 2018

CSU researchers find cause of Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Flint

An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in 2014-15 in Flint, Michigan, was likely caused by a change in the city's drinking water supply, according to a study led by Colorado State University researchers.

6 Feb 2018

Waterborne disease outbreaks can be traced to plumbing systems in buildings

Traditional water treatment efforts have focused on water leaving the treatment plant, but a large number of recent waterborne disease outbreaks in the U.S. can be traced to plumbing systems in buildings.

9 Nov 2017

NYITCOM expert urges people to take caution of Legionnaires' disease during summer

For many, the months of July and August are a time for relaxation by the pool and vacation with the family, but this June, after several people in New York City were diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease in less than two weeks, an expert at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine urges people to take caution.

21 Jun 2017

Case of Legionnaires’ disease in the city sparks alerts

A New York Police Department officer has contracted Legionnaires’ disease leading to a spate of investigations by the health officials as to its source and potential capacity for spread. The officer however is at present on their way to recovery at a hospital located outside the city said health officials. Legionnaire’s disease is a form of pneumonia that can become life threatening.

11 Jun 2017

Legal-Bay reports that death toll from Legionnaires' disease outbreak in South Bronx rises to 7

Legal-Bay LLC, The Lawsuit Settlement Funding Company, reports that in the tragic Legionnaires' disease outbreak sweeping the South Bronx, 81 cases have been reported as of now, with a total of 7 people dead as a result. According to NYC health officials, 81 cases have been reported in total, with 64 of those requiring hospitalization, and the death roll has recently risen to 7.

10 Aug 2015

Challenges involved in tracing the source of Legionnaires’ disease outbreak

Genetic research helps to explain why tracing the source of an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that claimed four lives has proven to be more complicated than scientists hoped.

10 Apr 2015

Study: Inactivating polymorphism may influence progression of ovarian and luminal breast cancer

A common polymorphism - a variation in a person's DNA sequence that is found with regularity in the general population - can lead to a chain of events that dictates how a tumor will progress in certain types of cancer, including a form of breast cancer as well as ovarian cancer, according to new research from The Wistar Institute that was published online by the journal Cancer Cell.

19 Dec 2014

Virginia Tech professor wins Paul L. Busch Award for outstanding work in water quality research

Amy Pruden, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, is the 2014 recipient of the Paul L. Busch Award, including a $100,000 research grant.

1 Oct 2014

New technique detects bacterium that causes Legionnaires’ disease

The bacterium that causes Legionnaires’ disease remains difficult to track. French researchers have now developed a new technique that should allow living representatives of this dangerous pathogen to be detected much more quickly than with conventional methods. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, samples are exposed to an azide-modified compound that the pathogen specifically incorporates into its shell, which is made of saccharide units. A fluorescent marker attached to the azide groups is used to identify the pathogen.

24 Jan 2014

Drinking water fails to meet state quality standards at North Carolina migrant farmworker camps

The drinking water at one-third of migrant farmworker camps in eastern North Carolina failed to meet state quality standards, according to a new study from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

15 Sep 2012

Tips to prevent illness in crowds

Massive crowds from around the globe will mingle in London during the Olympics, and that means a world-class array of germs will mix with them. Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert Gregory Poland, M.D., offers several tips for avoiding illness when you are around lots of people, whether at the Olympics, a professional football game, convention, arena concert or other major event.

26 Jul 2012

Caspase-11 enzyme plays an important role in Legionella infection

New research shows that an enzyme that has long been considered relatively useless to the immune response instead has an important role in setting up immune cells to kill infection-causing bacteria.

13 Jun 2012

Decorative fountain in hospital linked to 2010 Wisconsin outbreak of Legionnaires' disease

A 2010 outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Wisconsin has been linked to a decorative fountain in a hospital lobby, according to a study published in the February issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

11 Jan 2012