[Clinical aspects and treatment of severe Legionnaires' pneumonia]

The authors provide the reported data on the epidemiology, morphology, clinical picture and treatment of Legionnaires' disease. Demonstrate a wide disease prevalence and note a high percentage of grave patterns of Legionnaires' disease. Stress the necessity of etiological verification of the diagnosis in pulmonary diseases. The possibility of concomitant lung injury by different microorganisms interfering with the diagnosis and instituting a goal-oriented etiotropic therapy (by tetracycline and erythromycin in Legionnaires' disease) is discussed with reference to clinical material. The authors are also concerned with changes in the immune status of patients with the disease under consideration and approaches to their correction.