Not The Flu An American Legion Convention held in Philadelphia
beginning on this date in 1976, became the focal point for the
hunt for a deadly disease that killed 29 of the conventioneers.
Others who attended the convention were hospitalized with
mysterious flu-like symptoms including high fever, chest pains
and lung congestions. Epidemiologists were unable to find any
single factor appearing in every case. Soon, Legionnaires'
disease spread to 19 states. Researchers from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were called in to
conduct what would become one of the biggest and most intensive
medical investigations of all time. A breakthrough came in 1978
when the bacterium Legionella pneumophila was isolated in water
taken from a cooling tower in an Indiana hotel. Finally, the
source of the bacterium was traced to the air-conditioning
systems of hotels Copyright Aetna InteliHealth, Inc., 2011. All
rights reserved.