BACKGROUND Although fluoroquinolones possess excellent in vitro activity against Legionella, few large-scale clinical trials have examined their efficacy in the treatment of Legionnaires disease. Even fewer studies have applied rigorous criteria for diagnosis of community-acquired Legionnaires disease, including culture of respiratory secretions on selective media. METHODS Data from six clini...

Twenty countries reported 676 cases of travel associated legionnaires' disease to the EWGLINET surveillance scheme, and 94 clusters were detected. 80.5% of all cases were diagnosed by the urinary antigen test. On average there were 20.5 days between onset and report of cases, compared with 51.5 days in 1993. Between the introduction of the EWGLI investigation guidelines (on 1st July 2002) and t...

The development of an amoebal enrichment method, for the recovery of viable Legionella pneumophila from clinical materials is described. The method has been used successfully in five of six cases of Legionnaires' disease in which L pneumophila was isolated. Studies on those L pneumophila isolates led to the discovery that virulent legionellae are attracted to, and attack suitable host amoebae, ...

Internet resources that focus on Legionella and legionnaires disease are presented. Web sites were selected on the basis of their content and adherence to suggested standards of medical Internet publishing. Free, accessible, English-language Web sites were categorized according to users' needs as follows: (1) those with comprehensive information on Legionella infection (including pathophysiolog...