[Clinical picture and treatment of Legionella pneumonia in children].

Data on the clinical and laboratory study involving 150 children with the verified diagnosis of pneumonia observed as inpatients within a period from 1984 to 1988 are presented. To elucidate the pneumonia etiology, blood sera to the causative agents of influenza and parainfluenza, adenovirus, RS virus, Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Legionella pneumophila were assayed. An increase in the number of neutralizing antibodies to L. pneumophila was observed in 17.3 per cent of the patients. The majority of them simultaneously showed positive serological shifts with respect to the respiratory viruses. A specific clinical picture of pneumonia in the patients with the confirmed legionella infection was stated. The description of the treatment results is retrospective.