The 60-year-old, originally from Jelsi, has been living in Campobasso for some time: it is assumed that he may have drunk water from a fountain
He has been at Cardarelli in Campobasso since Sunday and is currently hospitalized in serious condition in intensive care. This is a 60-year-old man diagnosed with legionella.
The man, originally from Jelsi, but a resident of Campobasso for many years, felt ill during the last weekend and in the last few days he was diagnosed with legionella. It is assumed, according to the interviews that are carried out in these cases, that the 60-year-old may have contracted the bacterium after drinking water from a fountain.
legionella
Legionnaires’ disease, more commonly referred to as legionellosis, is a lung infection caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila.
Sources of infection, mode of transmission and risk factors
Legionellosis is caused in 90% of cases by the bacterium Legionella, of which more than 60 different species have been identified divided into 71 serotypes. Legionnaires are present in natural and artificial aquatic environments: spring waters, including thermal ones, rivers, lakes, muds, etc. From these environments they reach artificial ones, such as city pipes and building water systems, such as tanks, pipes, fountains and swimming pools, which can act as amplifiers and disseminators of the microorganism, creating a potential risk situation for human health.
Legionellosis is normally acquired by the respiratory route through inhalation, aspiration or microaspiration of an aerosol containing Legionellaor of particles derived by drying.
The death rate related to Legionella infection depends on some specific factors (such as the severity of the disease, the appropriateness of the initial antibiotic treatment, the place where the infection was acquired, the patient’s previous conditions) and can vary from 40-80% in untreated immunosuppressed patients, to 5-30% in case of an appropriate treatment of the disease. Overall, the lethality of legionellosis is between 5% and 10%.
Symptoms and treatment
Legionellosis can manifest itself in two distinct forms:
- Legionnaires’ disease proper, which frequently includes a more acute form of pneumonia
- Pontiac fever, a much less severe form.
The Legionnaire’s disease, after an incubation period ranging from 2 to 10 days (on average 5-6 days), it manifests itself as an infectious pneumonia, with or without extrapulmonary manifestations. The pneumonitis syndrome has neither clinical nor radiological characteristics of specificity. In severe cases it can arise abruptly with fever, chest pain, dyspnoea, cyanosis, productive cough associated with the semeiological physical objectivity of pulmonary consolidation. In less severe cases the onset can be insidious with fever, malaise, osteoarthritis, mild, non-productive cough. Gastrointestinal, neurological and cardiac symptoms may sometimes be present; mental status changes are common.