40 years after the Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak in Philly

Forty years ago, dozens of American Legion members fell ill across Pennsylvania with a mysterious disease. The 1976 annual conference of thousands of veterans in Philadelphia and the sickness that followed lead to 34 deaths. Today on Radio Times we’ll discuss the illness that was later identified and named after those afflicted veterans: Legionnaires’ disease. To start, we’ll get a first-hand account of the tension and fear that gripped the region, from STEVE HORNSTEIN, the doorman at the Bellevue Hotel at the time. We’ll also talk with DAVID FRASER, a Philadelphia area native who led the CDC’s federal field investigation. And modern day Legionnaire’s Disease expert Dr. JANET STOUT, president and director of the Special Pathogens Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, will explain the new standards that are intended to prevent Legionnaires Disease.