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Legionellosis and Sick Buildings Syndrome
Air pollution is a public health and environment problem. This danger
is also within buildings, mainly the commercial ones, where the movement
of people is greater. According to the World Health Organization – WHO,
most of the population spends between 80 and 90% of their time indoors,
breathing approximately 10 thousand liters of air per day.
The first case of Illness related to Building was reported in July of
1976, in the middle of North American summer, at the centenary Belevue
Stratford Hotel, which was hosting the annual convention of the American
Legion of the Korean War Veterans. Among the 182 participants all elderly
and, therefore more vulnerable to respiratory diseases, some began to feel
sick during the event, initially with respiratory failure.
The bacterium causing the disease was an organism that was difficult
to be diagnosed in laboratory under the technical conditions of the time.
Today it is known that it survives in the water of the air-conditioning ducts
and spreads through the air inhaled in the environment – the bacterium
was called
Legionella pneumophila
– “lung disease of the legionnaires”.
This microorganism causes Legionellosis, a fatal infection even for
young and healthy persons, if not treated early. This microorganism was
present at the air-conditioning system of the luxury hotel, whose water and
air pipes were lacking the adequate maintenance. As a result, 29 fatal cases
were registered in a few days, but it could have been more – 34, as many of
the legionnaires went back to their homes and died some days later.
InBrazil, in1998, the formerMinistryofCommunication, SergioMotta,
was hospitalized due to heart problems at the Alberto Einstein Hospital
in São Paulo, and died because of respiratory failure caused precisely by
