Epidemiology of Legionnaires’ Disease, Hong Kong, China, 2005−2015

Abstract

We reviewed findings of clinical, epidemiologic, and environmental investigations for 288 confirmed case-patients with Legionnaires’ disease reported in Hong Kong, China, during January 2005−December 2015. We found that chronic renal failure/impairment (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 4.09), chronic pulmonary diseases (aOR 3.22), malignancy (aOR 3.04), and heart diseases (aOR 2.15) were independently associated with a higher risk for severe Legionnaires’ disease. However, patients with hyperlipidemia had a lower risk for severe outcome (aOR 0.17). Legionella positivity rate was 22% for 1,904 water samples collected. We found a higher positivity rate in summer months (28%−30%), which corroborated with months of highest rainfalls. Our novel finding that Legionnaires’ disease patients with hyperlipidemia had a lower risk for severe outcome deserves further study to confirm the observation and ascertain the underlying reason.

Keywords

• Legionnaires’ disease
• legionellosis
• Legionella pneumophila
• Legionella species
• bacteria
• epidemiology