Legionnaires' Disease and the Science of Epidemiology

The Disease Detectives.

When an epidemic breaks out, the immediate question for medical professionals is how to control the outbreak. Often public health officials known as epidemiologists collect evidence helping to break the chain of transmission and, in the case of several new diseases that arose during the 1970s, identify the cause of the epidemic. Known as the disease detectives, epidemiologists begin by asking questions: Who are the victims? What sets them apart from those who are not sick? Where do they live? Where were they when they became ill? What were they doing? What did they eat and drink?

A Killer Disease.

The "who" and the "where" in August 1976 were the people who had attended a Pennsylvania American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Twenty-nine people died of an unidentified, flulike disease, and others were hospitalized with pneumonialike symptoms of high fever, chest pains, and lung congestion....

[The entire page is 475 words long]

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