An Outbreak of Pontiac Fever Related to Whirlpool Use, Michigan 1982
- 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
- 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).
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)
Footnotes
-
Reprint requests to Centers for Disease Control, Division of Bacterial Diseases, Center for Infectious Diseases, Atlanta, GA 30333 (Dr Mangione).
