BMJ 2002;325:347-348 ( 17 August )

Editorials

New outbreak of legionnaires' disease in the United Kingdom

A wake up call for continued vigilance

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In the past 25 years an extensive knowledge base has been established about legionnaires' disease, and the measures needed for control and prevention from environmental sources of infection are now legally enforced in most industrialised countries.1 Yet in spite of these advances in public health knowledge and practice, four major community outbreaks around the world have occurred in the past three years, the most recent in England.2 This outbreak and those in the Netherlands3 and Australia4 are the largest ever in their countries, and the one in Spain last year ranks as the world's largest.5 These four outbreaks alone account for almost 1000 cases of pneumonia and around 40 deaths. They are an uncomfortable but timely reminder of how breakdowns in control or maintenance procedures can have catastrophic consequences for many people. They also raise interesting questions---namely, why were they so large in comparison with other outbreaks, why did fewer deaths . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Outbreak of legionnaires' disease in the United Kingdom
Raj S Bhopal, Hiroshi Kawane, and Nikki C Jones
BMJ 2002 325: 1033. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Telford, D., Partridge, S., Cumming, I., Smith, A., Calvert, N. (2006). The legionnaires' outbreak in Barrow-in-Furness, summer 2002.. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 60: 464-466 [Full text]  
  • Regan, M, Olowokure, B (2006). Community acquired legionnaires' disease: lessons for surveillance from recent outbreaks.. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 60: 466-467 [Full text]  
  • Smith, A F, Wild, C, Law, J (2005). The Barrow-in-Furness legionnaires' outbreak: qualitative study of the hospital response and the role of the major incident plan. Emerg. Med. J. 22: 251-255 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Bhopal, R. S, Kawane, H., Jones, N. C (2002). Outbreak of legionnaires' disease in the United Kingdom. BMJ 325: 1033-1033 [Full text]  

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