Legionnaires' disease

Le·gion·naires' disease (lj-nârz)

n.

An acute, sometimes fatal respiratory disease caused by a bacterium of the genus Legionella, especially L. pneumophila, and characterized by severe pneumonia, headache, and a dry cough.

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[So called because it was first recognized when an outbreak occurred during an American Legion Convention in Philadelphia in 1976.]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

Legionnaires' disease - acute (sometimes fatal) lobar pneumonia caused by bacteria of a kind first recognized after an outbreak of the disease at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia in 1976; characterized by fever and muscle and chest pain and headache and chills and a dry cough lobar pneumonia - pneumonia affecting one or more lobes of the lung; commonly due to streptococcal infection