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as America celebrated its 200th birthday as an independent nation its birthplace
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Philadelphia played host to millions of tourists and hundreds of business Gatherings Philadelphia made history
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that summer but not for the bicentennial it was the mysterious death of 34 people that left a tragic Legacy
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and launched the most extensive medical investigation in history [Music] [Music]
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[Applause] the summer of 1976 was a busy time for the city of Philadelphia filled with
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Bicentennial celebrations tourist activities and business conventions it should have been a time of celebration
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for City officials as well but they faced a number of unexpected difficulties sanitation workers staged a
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work slowdown over a wage dispute and the mountains of uncollected garbage created serious health concerns then
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there was a terrorist threat an anonymous tip warning of possible violence at the upcoming American
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legionnaires convention in protest against recent US foreign policy decisions that convention was to be
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headquartered here at the Belleview Stratford Hotel one of Philadelphia's finest and it was having some of its own
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problems hello I received a service call I'm here to check the air conditioner
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sure come on in the hotel's air conditioning system was malfunctioning and men were doing all they could to get
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it up and running before the convention hotel security was also working to make sure that prostitutes
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were kept away from the hotel during the busy summer season on July 21st 4500 legionnaires from around the state of
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Pennsylvania arrived in Philadelphia for their annual get together it was a time
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for business and to renew old friendships everybody was looking forward to it uh a jolly jol old time
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where we uh naturally had meetings to attend and so forth but normally the business would be over by noon and we
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could then uh go out and visit the city I had been to three or four conventions I
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think in Pittsburgh one in Harrisburg and I I really didn't know that much about Philly I knew it's a big
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city I was anxious too after 3 days of business and pleasure the 4500 legionnaires returned home the
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convention had ended but a mystery began to unfold Lord welcome into your presence 8
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Days Later in Williamstown Pennsylvania legionaires James Dolan and John Ralph died suddenly under mysterious
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circumstances both had attended the convention in Philadelphia I don't think
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we've had two Korean veterans die in the same year alone uh 2 days apart from
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each other the official cause of death pneumonia the coroner described their lungs as resembling brillo pads within
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days other legionnaires fell ill I laid around the house for about two days and uh I I just kept feeling worse and
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worse my oldest boy was there and he said Dad I'm taking you to the doctor there must be something wrong with you
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the mysterious illness struck swiftly first headache then muscle and chest pain and fever which could get as high
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as 107° within 3 weeks 11 more legionnaires died and I thought boy here I am if I'm
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going to die I mean I had five kids that makes you think a lot and I thought oh boy I hope that's
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not me authorities in the state capital of Harrisburg feared an epidemic and quickly called in the Centers for
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Disease Control to investigate Dr David Frasier led the investigation we had a situation which
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when we first heard about the uh the problem there had been four deaths quickly thereafter we heard of 11 deaths
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uh and and and it increased from that point so uh this was occurring from unknown cause in a major city in in the
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United States and uh had to have everybody's attention Frasier's first task to find out why some Legionnaire
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were getting sick and others weren't which at its most basic involves comparing what people did who became
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sick with what people did who stayed well the investigation would be complicated the legionnaires were spread
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throughout the state and gathering information would be difficult Dr Frasier had some theories but little
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else the investigation into the death of the American legionnaires would become the largest and most complicated medical
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investigation in history by the time Dr David Fraser and his team arrived in Philadelphia the
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death rate among the infected legionnaires was 20% and Rising 11 legionnaires were dead and 39 more were
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seriously ill all of the legionnaires who died had a form of pneumonia but investigators had no idea what was
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causing it there more deaths in Pennsylvania from a disease still not identified because of the the outbreak
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was worldwide news and the Press had given it a name ever since the Legionnaire disease became a major
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national story The Daily Press reports fueled the fear many citizens felt and nowhere was that fear more evident than
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in the town of messen Pennsylvania Andrew hornack was a bus driver who had driven a drum and bugle
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core to the legionnaires convention in Philadelphia after he arrived home he fell ill and died from legionaire
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disease although he was extremely popular few of his friends went to pay their last respects well we've had a
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very sparse uh visitation at the funeral home because uh our uh people seem to feel that there might be some danger
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involved to their own life Dr Lewis pulk was Philadelphia's Health commissioner
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and understood people's fears if you deal with a catastrophe of a known cause
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whether it's a flood a fire an earthquake whatever even though it may cause a lot of damage and even kill a
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lot of people somehow as human beings all of us can deal with a known cause catastrophe better than an unknown cause
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a true mystery Dr Frasier and the Centers for Disease Control needed to gather information investigators Chris
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Cross the state to interview sick legionnaires at the go-getter breakfast on Friday did you have the coffee just
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the coffee no no Ro they sent detailed questionnaires to everyone who attended the convention on Friday the 23rd how
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often did you ride the main elevators man I don't know how many they collected hundreds of dust air water and
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ice samples as well as rat and pigeon droppings from every Hotel used by the legionnaires anything which might be of
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interest to the biologists and toxicologists of the CDC was sent to Atlanta for analysis and tissue samples
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from the autopsies were also collected and analyzed CDC investigators had plenty of competing theories swine flu
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was at the top of their list since the symptoms were similar parrot fever was also a possibility a disease spread by
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sick pigeons perhaps a massive case of food poisoning caused by a problem at one of the
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convention's half dozen hotels there were some thoughts early on that people
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in town for a convention possibly might have overindulged in one of several ways
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whether it's drinking or sex or something was it a new strain of venial disease called
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super ganara the symptoms were similar to Super ganara and there had been two outbreaks in other cities earlier that
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year or did the outbreak stem from the rats and the recent sanitation strike which left mountains of uncollected
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garbage in the very streets the legionnaires walked through and what about the anonymous tip about a possible
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terrorist attack was it possible the legionnaires had been poisoned but one of the most puzzling questions was why
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some legionnaires developed the disease While others did not after legionaire Bob mcgary's roommate developed
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pneumonia the CDC wanted him to get to a hospital right away when I told him what
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I was there for they rolled out the red carpet and uh they uh gave me a physical
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like I never had before in my life they wanted every type of uh Slava urine and anything else that I
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could give them to be sent to the Disease Control Center in Atlanta Georgia what we found though in in our
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survey of Roommates was that being a roommate of somebody with legionaire disease didn't increase your chance of
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getting Legionnaire's Disease and and uh that's that was a very important finding because it
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suggested that first of all exposure wasn't occurring in the bedrooms there and it also suggested it
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wasn't spread person to person within 48 Hours the first tissue specimen analyzed
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by the CDC eliminated typhoid the Lassa and marberg viruses peruses and the plague and after 5 days they eliminated
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many more including herpes MPS and measles viruses as well as some of their top suspects blood tests also eliminated
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the possibility that it was super ganara the CDC had eliminated a number of possibilities but they still couldn't ID
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identified the killer the questionnaires yielded some important information among
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the various hotels we surveyed the highest rate of illness that looked like legionaire disase was among people who
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were registered at the B Stratford hotel and specifically in the week of the American Legion convention however there
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were some victims of Legionnaire disease who weren't legionnaires at all hadn't
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attended their convention and never set foot inside the Belleview Stratford Hotel there were people who walked along
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the sidewalk in front of the Bell statford who got sick who never went inside or on the street across the way
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indeed we found that people the more time people spent on the sidewalk in front of the B statford the more likely
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they were it get sick but for some unknown reason none of the employees of the Belleview Stratford Hotel contracted
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the disease what were the common factors among those who did most were over the age of 50 50 17 of the first 21
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fatalities were smokers and some had other underlying illnesses when Frasier reviewed the Belleview Stratford's
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employees he discovered that on average they were 10 years younger and healthier
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than those who got sick by now 27 were dead the death toll was mounting and Frasier still had no idea what was
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killing these people or how it was being spread Dr Frasier and his team were convinced the outbreak of Legionnaire's
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Disease had something to do with the Belleview Stratford hotel but they hadn't found the connection it's just
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amazing you know I just can't figure it out why some would get sick and others
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did not right right because as I said I slept in the same room with two Fells that are dead Frasier believed that the
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agent or cause of the disease came from somewhere near the Belleview statford hotel and since individuals on the
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street had also developed the disease that told him something else we had uh uh some evidence that it was not water
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born or foodborn and so we were developing the idea that this might be an Airborne infection but we had some
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additional questions to answer about that but if the agent was inside the hotel Frasier's medical Detective
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detectives couldn't find it and since the outbreak was slowing down he believed the cause might now be gone his
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only hope was that the scientists in the lab could find it at the University of Connecticut Dr William Sunderman
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received an anonymous letter saying that the legionnaires were intentionally poisoned while in Philadelphia Sunderman
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turned the letter over to the FBI but Sunderman was an expert on nickel carbonal a clear odorless liquid easily
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transformed into a lethal gas he did a little of his own research nickel could spread through the air that it certainly
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could cause pneumonia that it caused a particular pattern of pneumonia that was not so different from what we were
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seeing in the Legionnaire cases as to be obviously uh excludable tests on liver samples revealed that nickel was present
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in those who died Dr William Sunderman the chief toxicologist doing the research work at
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the University of Connecticut has pretty well established that it was nickel carbonel but Dr sunderman's Discovery
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was not the Breakthrough after days of testing researchers suspected that nickel was peeling off of the scalpel
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used during the autopsies when plastic scalpel were used the nickel was no longer present investigators were no
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closer to finding the cause of Legionnaire's Disease there is a possibility that we may never find the
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answer however I will pledge and I'm sure Dr sensor would that this effort and investigation will continue if it
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takes a year or two years to continue the investigation to get to the bottom of it over the Christmas holidays some of
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the CDC staff decided to take some much needed time off they had been working around the clock to find the cause of
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the Legionnaire's outbreak without success there were no new cases of Legionnaire's Disease but still no
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answers Dr Joseph McDade a CDC microbiologist and his wife were looking forward to the Christmas holidays Joe
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it's been six months since this first broke out but what should have been a diversion turned to frustration as
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friends asked why he and his colleagues were unable to find the cause of the outbreak come on honey think frustrated
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angry and embarrassed McDade cancelled his Christmas vacation and returned to his
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lab he pulled the slide of a guinea pig which had been injected with liver tissue from a Legionnaire's victim it
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was a slide he had seen hundreds of times before but this time in his deserted lab he noticed something he didn't
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recognize a new bacterium one Dr McDade had never seen before Dr Joseph McDade a CDC
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microbiologist saw something he never noticed before as he examined tissues of guinea pigs exposed to the mysterious
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disease but at first he thought he was looking at a contaminated specimen so they were
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probably some other kind of bacteria and he as I understand it uh decided to retest those
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specimens no longer assuming that these were contaminants but on the off chance that this was the agent he tested his
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Newfound organism with a blood sample from a Legionnaire's Disease Survivor that blood sample would contain
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antibodies which successfully fought the disease if the antibodies were present the sample would turn
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green McDade looked through the microscope and saw a bright green glow so he demonstrated that the bug was
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present in the uh in the liver of the guinea pig and he demonstrated that that legionnaires developed antibodies that
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specific to that agent well that was the Breakthrough 147 days after the outbreak the
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bacterium which killed 34 and hospitalized 221 others was officially given its name Legionella numafa in
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honor of the legionnaires in Philadelphia and researchers identified an antibiotic which would kill it
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erythromycin but the question remained where did the bacteria come from and how was it spread by the time
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researchers knew what they were looking for they couldn't find it in any of the
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samples from the hotel the bacteria had long since died but researchers quickly discovered its properties it multiplied
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in warm watery conditions and could travel through the air in contaminated water droplets or Mist since some of the
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victims never set foot inside the Bellevue statford Hotel but were on the side walk in front of the hotel Dr
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Frasier believes that the bacteria most likely came from the roof of the hotel from the air conditioning water cooling
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towers inside the cooling towers warm water is cooled as it Cascades over wooden louvers the excess water falls
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into a collection pan at the bottom where it stagnates if it fails to drain properly investigators believe it was
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here inside these water cooling units where the deadly Legionella bacteria grew and
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multiplied it was drawn up into the air by the unit's powerful fans now Airborne
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the deadly mist of bacteria and warm water flew up into the atmosphere and floated down the side of the building
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making its way to the street below it landed on pedestrians walking by the hotel and was also drawn into the hotel
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lobby by intake fans on the south side of the building Hotel employees probably developed an immunity to the bacteria or
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weren't susceptible because they were younger and healthier than those who contracted the disease the cooling tower
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theory was never proven probably because the bacteria in the Belleview Stratford's cooling towers had already
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died but investigators discovered the same bacteria in similar cooling towers in other parts of the country scientists
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believe Legionella has been killing for thousands of years and when blood samples from earlier unexplained
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outbreaks were examined they discovered the Legionella bacteria Austin Minnesota 1957 the
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earliest documented outbreak Washington DC 1965 where Legionella killed 16 people
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Bob McGary and Charlie Davis were two of the more fortunate Legionnaire from the
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1976 convention Charlie Davis developed Legionnaire's Disease spent three weeks
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in the hospital but recovered Bob McGary escaped the disease altogether even though he and Charlie roomed together
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Bob was younger didn't smoke or have any previous respiratory ailments but the
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outbreak had a lasting effect on these two lifelong friends they lost many of their brothers that summer and neither
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one ever attended another legionnaires convention I was at the wrong place at the right
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time as far as that was concerned had it not been for the unfortunate incident that occurred with the rest of the
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delegates and brothers I could say today it was a great time but I was not going to press
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my luck I seen it once I don't want to do it again [Music]