legionnaires' disease
Noun: A serious and sometimes fatal type of pneumonia (lung infection) caused by bacteria. The disease is characterized by symptoms including high fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, chest pain, and a dry cough. It gained its name after the first recognized major outbreak occurred among attendees of an American Legion convention in Philadelphia, USA, in 1976.
"Legionnaires' disease" is used as a singular, non-count noun to refer to the specific illness. It is typically used in medical, public health, and general news contexts. * The hotel was closed after several guests were diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease. * Legionnaires' disease is not spread from person to person but through inhalation of contaminated water droplets. * Early antibiotic treatment is crucial for Legionnaires' disease.
- Epidemiological Context: The term is often used when discussing outbreaks linked to water systems in buildings, such as cooling towers, hot tubs, or large plumbing systems.
- The investigation traced the source of the Legionnaires' disease outbreak to the building's air conditioning cooling tower.
- Legionellosis: This is the broader term for all diseases caused by bacteria, which includes both Legionnaires' disease and the less severe Pontiac fever.
- Legionella (bacteria): The genus of bacteria that causes the disease. is the most common species responsible for Legionnaires' disease.
- Pontiac fever: A milder, flu-like illness also caused by bacteria, which does not develop into pneumonia.
- Legionellosis (specifically the pneumonic form)
- There is no common layperson's synonym; it is referred to by its specific name. In early descriptions, it might have been called "atypical pneumonia."
- Outbreak of Legionnaires' disease: The standard phrase for describing the occurrence of multiple cases.
- Health officials are managing an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the city.
- Contract/Catch Legionnaires' disease: Common verbs used with the illness.
- He contracted Legionnaires' disease while on a cruise.
- acute (sometimes fatal) lobar pneumonia caused by bacteria of a kind first recognized after an outbreak of the disease at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia in 1976; characterized by fever and muscle and chest pain and headache and chills and a dry cough