JUST walking by a whirlpool on display in a home improvement store was enough
to give 23 people legionnaires鈥� disease and kill two of them, say US government
researchers.
In October 1996, health officials in Virginia noticed a high incidence of
pneumonia. Further investigation showed that several of the victims were
infected with the bacterium Legionella pneumophila, which causes
legionnaires鈥� disease.
Denise Benkel, then with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta, Georgia, says that old-fashioned epidemiology, including extensive
interviews with the sick people, led health officials to the source of the
infection: a display model of a garden whirlpool spa (International Journal
of Epidemiology, vol 29, p 1092). 鈥淚f I saw a spa, I wouldn鈥檛 take a big
old sniff,鈥� Benkel says.
Advertisement
