Between May 7 and June 7, 1986, 27 residents of a rural county in Maryland developed legionellosis, and two died. Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 was cultured from the sputum of two patients and identified in lung tissue of a third patient by direct fluorescent antibody staining. An additional 11 patients had four-fold rises in antibody titer to L. pneumophila, and 13 had single titers greater than or equal to 1:256. To determine risk factors for disease, we performed a case-control study. Twelve of 16 case-patients reported visiting store A in the two weeks before onset of illness compared with four of 28 control-patients. A serologic survey of employees showed that employees of store A were 3.63 times more likely than control employees to have titers of antibody to L. pneumophila greater than or equal to 1:256 (95% confidence intervals 0.8, 16.7). Cultures of soil specimens, samples of water from the hot water system of store A and from stagnant ponds near store A collected five weeks after the end of the outbreak were negative for Legionella species. Store A was adjacent to a site of excavation and construction during May 1986, when the community was experiencing an extended drought. This investigation suggests that exposure to excavation and construction activity may be a risk factor for legionellosis.

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The study was carried out to assess the consciousness of dairy farmers about leptospirosis disease as a zoonosis. Using the simple random sampling method, 180 dairy farmers from 36 villages of 6 talukas of Panchmahals and Mahisagar districts of Gujarat state (India) were selected. The majority of dairy farmers (88.34 per cent) had medium to high level of consciousness about leptospirosis disease. The majority of the dairy farmers had very low to low level of knowledge (83.89 per cent), very high level of sensitivity (62.78 per cent) and favorable to most favorable attitude (95.55 per cent) towards the control of leptospirosis disease as a zoonosis. The relationship between education, extension participation, mass media exposure, internet exposure, professional training received, scientific orientation, innovation proneness and economic motivation of dairy farmers with their consciousness on leptospirosis disease were found to be a positive and significant. Dairy farmers can enhance their consciousness about leptospirosis disease through participation in different extension activities with using mass media, internet and other psychological variables.