Surge in Legionnaires Disease in North Carolina, 2025
- Presentation Day/Time: Friday, April 24, 1:05 PM
- Presenter: Talent Maphosa, MD, MDS, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
The Issue
- Legionnaires disease (LD) is a severe respiratory disease with high mortality. During 2025, many states, including North Carolina, observed an increase in LD incidence.
What We Did
- We investigated to identify LD cases that happened close to each other in geography and time and identify common exposure sources in North Carolina.
What We Found
- During 2025, we identified 316 LD cases—a 72% increase compared with the previous 10-year median of 184 cases annually—with a peak during week 21 that was approximately five times greater than the previous five years. We identified one cluster of seven cases during week 18–27 in one zip code in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, North Carolina), but an expanded questionnaire did not identify any common exposure among the identified cluster.
What This Means
- The observed increase in LD cases might be an indication of multiple risk factors.
