Legionellosis risk factors
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Risk Factors
Risk factors for Legionellosis are:
Common Risk Factors
- Old age (usually 65 years of age or older)
- Smokers
- Chronic lung disease (like emphysema)
- Alcoholism
Less Common Risk Factors
Weaker immune system from the following also increases the risk of Legionella infection:
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Renal failure
- Chemotherapy
- Transplantation
- Long-term use of a breathing machine (ventilator)
The following patients should be tested for Legionnaires' disease:
- Hospitalized patients with enigmatic pneumonia
- Patients with enigmatic pneumonia sufficiently severe to require care in the ICU
- Compromised host with pneumonia
- Patients with pneumonia in the setting of a legionellosis outbreak
- Patients who fail to respond to treatment to a ß-lactam or cephalosporin
- Patients with a travel history [patients that have traveled away from their home within two weeks before the onset of illness.]
- Patients suspected of nosocomial pneumonia with unknown etiology