frequently asked questions
What should I look out for?
Symptoms include fever, chills, and a cough that may or may not produce sputum. Additional symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal pain, and sometimes confusion. Some patients may experience headache, muscle ache, loss of appetite, and tiredness. Symptoms generally appear between two and ten days after exposure.
What do I do if I think I am sick?
If you are feeling sick, you should seek urgent medical attention. You should ask your physician to obtain a Legionella test.
How does testing work?
Health care providers have four common ways of detecting the Legionella bacterium to diagnose legionellosis or Legionnaires’ disease. These include antigen testing, culture, antibody testing, and genetic testing. A urine or respiratory sample is required to complete these tests. The CDC suggests antigen and culture testing to diagnose Legionnaires’ disease. Additional testes such as sputum culture, gram staining, complete blood count, and chemistry panels may also be ordered to help give a bigger picture of the patients’ overall health and any other ailment the body may be fighting. An additional blood sample may be required for these tests.
How do you get Legionnaires' Disease?
Legionnaires’ is contracted when a person breathes in small droplets of water from the air that contains the harmful bacteria Legionella. While it is not a very common mode of transmission, Legionnaires’ disease can be contracted by aspiration of contaminated drinking water. This happens when water “goes down the wrong pipe,” where a person is drinking, and the water enters the trachea or windpipe instead of going down the throat into the digestive tract.
Who is at risk?
While anyone can be exposed to the Legionella bacterium, most health people show no symptoms or recover quickly. For some, Legionnaires’ is a greater concern. People who are 50 years or older have a higher risk of infection along with those with certain medical issues. People with chronic lung disease such as obstructive pulmonary disease or emphysema are at a higher risk. Those with a weak immune system or take drugs that weaken the immune system (such as chemotherapy and drugs taken after a transplant operation) are also at a higher risk. People with cancer, underlying illness such diabetes, kidney failure and liver failure are in this high-risk category as well.
