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Yes. I was hospitalised for 18 nights with this vile disease and medics tell me I am lucky to be alive. My hair has been falling out in handfuls for a month (I have been out of hospital for 2 1/2 months) and is now thin, weak and stringy. Doc says it is a side effect of the very strong antibiotics used to fight the infection, and it may reverse after 6 months - by which time I expect to be completely bald. While, of course it is better that the alternative (death) I do find this ver distressing.
My BIL caught Legionnaires approximately six years ago. The health department tracked it to his dentist's office. He wasn't the only patient who caught it. He still has his hair, but he has been fighting recurring pneumonia ever since. He was the healthiest person prior to Legionnaires and now he's constantly battling infections.
There is a Facebook group in which I posted about this named "Legionnaire's Support Group". I have learned there are many people who experience major hair loss at three-months out. The good news is that it starts re-growing at six-months out (I hope). I had Legionnaires the beginning of December, 2022 and started losing my hair the beginning of March, 2023. It fell out in Huge amounts during March. I've probably lost 60% of my hair. I am hoping the re-growth period will begin in June, 2023.
I have also learned that this was likely cause by the massive amounts of antibiotics I was fed in order to cure the disease.
I'm just grateful to be alive, and I've purchased a wig in order to feel my best. I hope this helps!
There's nothing particularly magic about Legionaire's Disease-- just another bacterial infection often missed, discounted as a "summer cold." The bug likes to live in the water reservoirs associated with AC systems (Ever been near one and felt that fine little mist in the air? That's often contaminated with the bug...
It got it's name because it wasn't a recognized infection prior to the summer of 1976 Veteran's convention in Phila where a bunch of fat, over-50, drunken carousers (impaired immune systems) all got it at the same time and there was an exceptional degree of morbidity and mortality associated with the out-break....In restrospect at that time, we realized the bug has been around for a long time and we just didn't know it.
I'm not aware that it causes any hair loss, although, as Suzie points out, any severe illness can cause that. I also seached it, and found only this research report title (no article or synopsis available) that apparently they've seen an increase in alopecia areata (small bald patches, usually auto-immune in nature) with it. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8080419/
Like any infection, severity and impact has more to do with the pt's ability to fight it than on the virulence of the bug itself.
haven't heard of anyone getting this for years and years.
It's still fairly common to see outbreaks of LD.
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