ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of a 55-year-old man who had been receiving outpatient treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma but was admitted from the clinic with fever, diarrhoea, headache, and vomiting. It provides a discussion on clinical management, prevention, epidemiology, biology, and pathology of this case. The patient's blood gases showed mild hypoxemia of (PaO2 10 kPa.) The white cell count was 16 × 109/L with a neutrophilia. The C-reactive protein (CRP) was 90 mg/L. Urinary antigen for Legionella was positive. Blood and urine cultures were negative at 48 h. Sputum was cultured for Legionella, and an isolate sent to the reference laboratory was later confirmed as Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1. The source of the patient's Legionella could not be confirmed because no contemporaneous culture of a similar strain was available. However, the presence of Legionella in the hospital building was a possible causative link.
