If Legionella pneumonia or Legionnaire's disease goes untreated it can easily become fatal. As a result prompt treatment by a round of antibiotics is extremely important. Doctors have found that the most effective antibiotic in treating Legionnaire's Disease is Erythromycin. They have found that the type of antibiotic necessary must have the ability to penetrate phagocytic cells. The reason why erythromycin is used is because it inhibits ribosomal protein synthesis in bacteria and thus has a bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect7. Here is a look at the structure of erythromycin7.
Preventing Legionella pneumophila from living in all water supplies would be the first method of preventing the spread of this bacteria. This, however, is an extremely difficult task. The reason why it is so difficult is because the bacteria live inside amoebae as well as inside biofilms. Hence it is difficult to kill the bacteria because of their increased resistance to many toxic substances while inside the amoebae. Recent methods for destroying the bacteria, such as passing UV light as well as hot water through pipes, has been found to be very successful but expensive. It especially becomes expensive when treating large amounts of water. Scientists are also trying to discover biocides that are toxic to the bacteria, but safe for humans. This research, however, is in its early stages and so far no biocides have been uncovered. Finally there has been talk of developing a vaccine, but that too is in its early stages.
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