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Biomedical Research

Legionnaires' disease was first recognized in July 1976, when a sudden outbreak of pneumonia, resulting in several deaths, occurred mostly in persons who had attended an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Researchers Charles C. Shepard (1914-85) and Joseph E. McDade of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were the first in 1977 to identify the disease-causing bacterium -- Legionella pneumophilis, which is pictured here. Since then more than 20 species in the Legionella genus have been identified and the mystery surrounding many illnesses associated with them solved, in the grand tradition of the microbe hunters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of these modern day microbe hunters or epidemiologists were trained in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service, which was established by Dr. Alexander Laugmuir in 1951.

c. 1977

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