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1Mandell, G.L.; Bennett,J.E.; Dolin,R. Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. Churchill Livingstone
Elsevier, 7° edition, 2010.
2 R. Wenzel – USA; G. Bearman – USA; T. Brewer – USA; J-P. Butzler – Belgium. A Guide to Infection
Control in the Hospital - An official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID),
Fourth Edition. International Society for Infectious Diseases Boston, MA • USA, 2008.
3 Jeroen W. Den Boer et al. A Large Outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease at a Flower Show, the Netherlands,
1999. Emerg Infect Dis. 2002 January; 8(1): 37–43.
4 Jernigan, D.B. et al. Outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease among cruise ship passengers exposed to a
contaminated whirlpool SPA. The Lancet, 347(9000):494-499,1996.
5 Rosalyn E. O. Loughlin et al. Restaurant outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease associated with a decorative
fountain: an environmental and case-control study. BMC Infectious Diseases 2007, 7:93
To summarize, wemake use of several lab tests tohave the diagnosis of an
infection caused by a bacterium that is omnipresent in the environment and
just waiting for us in our buildings. At the moment it consists of pneumonia
with difficult diagnosis inmost of the Brazilian hospitals, because of the lack
of specific laboratory tests. The empirical treatment of pneumonias includes
the administration of antimicrobials with action for
Legionella
, because it is
a relatively frequent and potentially serious infection occurring mainly in
smokers, transplanted patients, immunosuppressed patients, patients with
chronic lung and heart diseases, diabetics, patients with renal insufficiency,
among others.
