Strange Country Ep. 146: Legionnaires Disease
Jun 11, 2020
As if it returning to work during a pandemic isn't worrisome enough, your building may be teeming with Legionella bacteria due to the stagnant water. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss the latest scare and what gave it its name. In 1976, delegate from the American Legion met in Philadelphia for a conference. A few weeks later, 34 were dead from some mysterious virulent pneumonia.
Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands
Cite your sources:
Honigsbaum, Mark. The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris. W. W. Norton & Company, 2019.
Horberry, Max. “After Coronavirus, Office Workers Might Face Unexpected Health Threats.” The New York Times, 20 May 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/health/coronavirus-legionnaires-offices.html.
Hu, Winnie, and Noah Remnick. “A Belated Look at New York's Cooling Towers, Prime Suspect in Legionnaires' Outbreak.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Aug. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/nyregion/new-york-officials-move-to-regulate-towers-tied-to-legionnaires-disease-outbreak.html.
“Legionnaires' Disease.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 17 Sept. 2019, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/legionnaires-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20351747.
Markel, Dr. Howard. “How a Hotel Convention Became Ground Zero for This Deadly Bacteria.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 23 July 2018, www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-a-hotel-convention-became-ground-zero-for-this-deadly-bacteria.
McQuade, Dan. “Philadelphia's 5 Most Disastrous Independence Days.” Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Magazine, 3 July 2013, www.phillymag.com/news/2013/07/03/5-disastrous-independence-days-philadelphia-history/.
Schrag, Zachary M. “Nativist Riots of 1844.” Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, 2013, philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/nativist-riots-of-1844/.
Thacker SB;Bennett JV;Tsai TF;Fraser DW;McDade JE;Shepard CC;Williams KH;Stuart WH;Dull HB;Eickhoff TC; “An Outbreak in 1965 of Severe Respiratory Illness Caused by the Legionnaires' Disease Bacterium.” The Journal of Infectious Diseases, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/361897/.