274
Chart 3
–Number of reported cases of LD by diagnostic method in Portugal, over time, through the Integrated
Epidemiological Surveillance Program 2004-2012)
The highest numbers of notifications through the Integrated
Epidemiological Surveillance Program for Legionnaires Disease concern
males, with the most frequent age ranging 40 to 59 years of age. These results
are concordant with the international literature. However, there were cases
reported in 2004, 2005 and 2010 for the age group of 0-19 years, which is
uncommon on this particularly disease.
The most common method of diagnosis used in Portugal remains
the detection of antigen in urine (antigenuria test). This test allows early
diagnosis resulting ina rapidtreatment.However,most availablecommercial
reagents only have the ability to detect
Legionella pneumophila
serogroup
1, which may result in false negatives for other serogroups of
Legionella
.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Number of cases
Year
culture method
antigenuria test
seroconversion
test
other methods /
unknown
methods
