First modification:
After weeks of uncertainty, the Argentine authorities confirmed that the culprit in several cases of pneumonia in Tucumán is the Legionella bacteria. Almost twenty people are affected by the outbreak and all are related to the same health center. This bacterium is not new: it was discovered in 1976 and outbreaks have been reported on a relatively regular basis ever since.
Since August 18, Argentina lived with uncertainty. Several cases of pneumonia had been registered in a private hospital in San Miguel de Tucumán, in the north of the country, but it was not known what was causing them. On September 3, the authorities finally named the culprit: the bacteria Legionella.
As of September 6, six people have lost their lives and 13 more have been affected by legionellosis, nine of whom are recovering at home and four are still hospitalized. Two of them are in serious condition.
Last weekend, the Argentine Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, assured from San Miguel de Tucumán that the next step “is to identify if [la bacteria] is in the water” with the aim of being able to “reuse the health center by hospitalizing people without any risk”.
What is legionellosis?
There are about 50 types of bacteria legionella, but only about half can make humans sick. The most common is Legionella pneumophila, the same one believed to have been detected in Argentina. Infection with the bacteria is what is known as legionellosis and its severity can range from a fever similar to a common cold to severe pneumonia in both lungs.
The incubation period of the disease, that is, the time that passes between infection and the appearance of the first symptoms, ranges between two and ten days, although sometimes longer periods have been recorded. Initially, the infection signals fever, cough, or fatigue.
It is very different if the affected person is immunosuppressed or has any pre-existing health problems, especially respiratory diseases. In that case, mortality from legionellosis can reach 80%. Precisely, the last two deceased in Argentina were of advanced age and had previous affections. On the other hand, with good disease management and good health, mortality drops to 10%.
Legionellosis is not spread from person to person. The bacterium grows in water, especially in stagnant water where it can feed on organic matter and at relatively high temperatures. For example, they can grow in humidifiers or tanks of industrial refrigeration systems. And through aerosols, small drops of water, can infect people. That is why most outbreaks tend to be around a very specific point, as has happened with San Miguel de Tucumán.
Are legionellosis outbreaks common?
The bacterium was discovered in 1976 following an outbreak of pneumonia among war veterans of the American Legion, who were at a convention in Philadelphia, United States. In fact, that’s where the name “Legionella” and “legionellosis” come from.
Since then, various outbreaks usually appear in different parts of the world with a certain regularity. For example, in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 10,000 cases are registered annually, a figure that has increased in the last two decades without experts finding a clear explanation.
Some cases are isolated and easily controlled; in other cases, as happened in New York in 2015, more than 80 people became infected in a single outbreak. In fact, it is believed that many infections do not even appear in epidemiological surveillance: a CDC study calculates that the real cases could double those that are known.
That is why, although the outbreak in Argentina has the seriousness that six deaths deserve, it does not portend a catastrophe: no new cases have been diagnosed, the bacteria that causes it is known and the world is used to fighting it.
#Health #Legionellosis #Argentina #claims #sixth #life #disease