From 15 to 21 August 1981, Pontiac fever affected 317 automobile assembly plant workers. Results of serologic tests were negative for Mycoplasma, Chlamydia, respiratory tract viruses, and previously described legionellae. A gram-negative, rod-shaped organism (WO-44C) that did not grow on blood agar, required L-cysteine for growth, and contained large amounts of branched-chain fatty acids was isolated from a water-based coolant. The organism did not react with antisera against other legionellae, and on DNA hybridization the organism was less than 10% related to other Legionella species. Geometric mean titers found by indirect fluorescent antibody testing to WO-44C were significantly higher in ill employees than in controls (p = 0.0001). Attack rates by department decreased linearly with the department's distance from the implicated coolant system. The etiologic agent apparently was a new Legionella species; we propose the name Legionella feeleii species nova (AATC 35072). This is the first outbreak of nonpneumonic legionellosis in which the etiologic agent is not L. pneumophila, serogroup 1.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 15. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 March 2026.
All research outputs
#3,044,835
of 34,518,147 outputs
Outputs from Annals of Internal Medicine
#6,093
of 16,975 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#421
of 13,292 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Annals of Internal Medicine
#5
of 33 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,518,147 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 16,975 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 57.6. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 13,292 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 33 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its contemporaries.
