Legionnaires Disease: Estimation of Mortality in Traveller’s Associated Legionnaires Disease in the Island of Crete

Legionellosis is a bacterial disease caused by bacteria of the Legionella genus. In about half of the cases, it develops as a pulmonary disease, with bilateral expansion of the lungs. In terms of clinical manifestations, it is marked by high fever, accompanied by chills, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. The public health significance of the disease is primarily that it has global spread and secondly that water systems, and mainly the hot water systems, air conditioning cooling tanks, humidifiers and other similar systems, are very much like receptors for the bacterium. Furthermore, the mortality rate of Legionella infection may reach 40% in hospitalised patients, or even higher in immunodeficient and immunosuppressed patients(1).