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After
dozens of domainers
fell
ill with acute flu-like symptoms at the same
time soon after returning home from last
week's DOMAINfest Global conference in Los
Angeles, the circumstances led us to believe
that the outbreak was a waterborne bacterial
infection rather than influenza (see out
first posts about this Tuesday
and Wednesday.).
In a major development today we learned
that the first known hospital lab tests
done on one of those who fell ill confirmed
a Legionellosis
bacterial infection.
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Yesterday
I noted that those going to their
doctors were being given antibiotics
because a bacterial infection was suspected
due to so many people apparently being
infected in the same place at the same
time. However, U.S. doctors typically do
not order expensive lab tests unless
someone has pneumonia or an equally
serious illness. That is not the case in
other countries with advanced health
care though. Four
DOMAINfest Global attendees from Sweden
fell ill when they returned home over
the weekend. Last night, one of the
four, Johannes Eriksson, added
their names to a long Facebook sick
list started by Nico Zeifang,
another attendee who fell ill (that list
is now up to 65 names - 10 more since
yesterday - and I know of a couple of
dozen others not on the list). Today
Johannes posted an update. One of the
four spent the day undergoing tests at a
local hospital. With people
returning this sick from overseas the
Swedish doctors wanted to know exactly
what they were dealing with, so they ran
a full battery of tests and
Johannes said all three test - blood,
urine and lung X-ray confirmed
Legionellosis. |
Image:
Sura
Nualpradid / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Now
this part is especially important - there
are two distinct forms of Legionellosis.
One is indeed the infamous Legionnaires'
disease - the more severe form of the infection
that produces pneumonia and in a small
percentage of cases can be fatal, particularly
in older people. The other is Pontiac Fever which
is caused by the same bacterium but produces a milder respiratory illness without pneumonia that
resembles acute influenza. The latter
appears to be what has kept many show attendees
bedridden through much of this week. Johannes
said his friend had used the term
"Legionnaires Disease" as well as
legionellosis when telling him about the
bacterial infection diagnosis in a phone call,
but since the doctors allowed him to go home, I
think it is safe to assume that his
legionellosis was the milder Pontiac Fever
strain - otherwise he would still be in the
hospital.
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Image:
Carlos
Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
All
of this confirms what we have been
saying - if you are not getting better you
need to see a doctor and get
antibiotics to kill this bacteria -
over the counter flu remedies will have
no impact. Fortunately, the Pontiac
Fever bacteria is supposed to die out on
its own within five days but some are
reporting relapses after they thought
they were getting better. Better to get
the antibiotics and be safe than sorry
when dealing with bacteria. My
wife Diana believes that too so
yesterday she scheduled a doctor's
appointment after having a bit of a
relapse Tuesday night. Her regular
doctor is off on Wednesdays so a
fill-in physician was there when she
arrived. Diana told her what she thought
she had and that she believed she had
been infected at a conference at the
same time as dozens of other people. When
Diana mentioned Pontiac Fever she
thought she saw a quizzical look in
the doctor's eye (like, what does a
discontinued automobile brand have to do
with you being |
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sick)!
Doctors are worried about overuse of
antibiotics creating super bugs so this
one, apparently not sure how much Diana
really needed them, said I will
prescribe them for you but I don't want
you to actually take them for
now. Diana agreed but in between the
short time she left the office and got
home from the pharmacy, the fill-in
physician seemed to have boned up on
what the Pontiac Fever/Legionnaires
virus was - and how dangerous it
is to people over 50. Just as Diana was
pulling into the driveway the doctor
called and said, "Take the
pills!!" That is the only
even mildly humorous moment I have seen
throughout this whole incident. Like that
doctor, if you have this, you need to
take it seriously. |
I
had hoped to hear a lot of reports by this
evening that people are getting better and I
have gotten a few (glad to hear it Kellie
Peterson!) but others say they are still
battling it. If that is the case, don't keep
trying to battle it on your own. See your
doctor tomorrow before they disappear for the
weekend!
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