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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).

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