
Review Article Legionellosis: An update
1331-1336
Correspondence
Dr. Kawal Preet Kaur,
Professor, Department of Microbiology,
HNo 2602 Patel Colony Rajpura Town
(Patiala) Punjab, India.
Phone: 09050551719
E-mail: dockawu25@gmail.com
Legionella is an important cause of adult pneumonia and it must be actively considered in both community-acquired and nosocomial pneumonia. The incidence of legionellosis is underestimated for a variety of reasons, which include a lack of clinical awareness, a non-classical presentation, extrapulmonary infections, a delayed seroconversion and a lack of specialized culture facilities or urinary antigen detection tests. More illness is usually found in the summer and in early fall (June to September), but it can occur at any time of the year. It is uncommon in our country, because we are not looking for it hard enough. Unless the doctor looks out and tests for Legionella, these cases are invariably missed. Physicians need to familiarize themselves with the disease, as a prompt recognition and an early treatment can considerably curtail the total outcome in the affected cases and prevent additional cases. Although many aspects about this disease are clear, there are some dark areas regarding the vaccine development, that need to be further explored and understood. The present article details out almost everything which is known about this disease, along with the review of the recent literature.