This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Ellen J. Mangione, MD; Robert S. Remis, MD, MPH; Keith A. Tait, MPH; Harry B. McGee, MPH; George W. Gorman; Berttina B. Wentworth, PhD; Paul A. Baron, PhD; Allen W. Hightower, MS; James M. Barbaree, PhD; claire V. Broome, MD

JAMA. 1985;253(4):535-539.

Abstract
Fourteen of 23 female members of a church group experienced an acute self-limited illness characterized by chills, fever, chest pain, cough, and nausea, consistent with the diagnosis of Pontiac fever. All 14 affected women had used a whirlpool located in the women's locker room during a racquetball party. Legionella pneumophila serogroup 6 was isolated from the women's whirlpool. Nine of 14 cases showed a seroconversion to heat-fixed antigen prepared from the L pneumophila serogroup 6 isolate. Aerosol size studies show that the whirlpool aerator produced water droplets small enough to travel deep into the tracheobronchial tree but large enough to transport L pneumophila. This outbreak demonstrated that Pontiac fever may be associated with L pneumophila serogroup 6, that whirlpools can serve as a reservoir for these organisms, and that seroconversion can occur in the absence of illness.

(JAMA 1985;253:535-539)

Author Affiliations
From the Division of Bacterial Diseases, Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta (Drs Mangione, Remis, Barbaree, and Broome and Messrs Gorman and Hightower); Oakland County Health Department, Pontiac, Mich (Mr Tait); Michigan Department of Public Health, Lansing (Drs Remis and Wentworth and Mr McGee); and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati (Dr Baron).

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Centers for Disease Control, Division of Bacterial Diseases, Center for Infectious Diseases, Atlanta, GA 30333 (Dr Mangione).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Legionella bacteria in shower aerosols increase the risk of Pontiac fever among older people in retirement homes
Bauer et al.
J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2008;62:913-920.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Molecular Characterization of Legionella Populations Present within Slow Sand Filters Used for Fungal Plant Pathogen Suppression in Horticultural Crops
Calvo-Bado et al.
Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2003;69:533-541.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Legionella and Legionnaires' Disease: 25 Years of Investigation
Fields et al.
Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 2002;15:506-526.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Case 27-2000- A 61-Year-Old Man with Rapidly Progressive Dyspnea
Schwartzstein and Mark
NEJM 2000;343:642-649.
FULL TEXT  

Hot Tub Legionellosis: Legionnaires' Disease and Pontiac Fever After a Point-Source Exposure to Legionella pneumophila
Thomas et al.
Arch Intern Med 1993;153:2597-2599.
ABSTRACT  

Hotel Sanitation Regulations and the Incidence of Sanitation- Related Disease Outbreaks: Are There Implications?
Reutter and Logomarsino
Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research 1989;13:247-257.
ABSTRACT