Gardening – A Deadly Pursuit?
November 22, 2017 Off

Gardening – A Deadly Pursuit?

By Dino Mustafić

Could a seemingly harmless hobby of pottering in the garden be fatal? In some cases it has. With one million adults in the U.S. every year hospitalized with pneumonia and increasing antibiotic resistance of the illness, most people would hope to avoid contracting it. However, one of the less obvious ways pneumonia can be contracted is through the legionella bacteria, and this is where the gardener can fall victim to the deadly illness. Although cases are rare, the high mortality rate associated with pneumonia, particularly for those with weakened immune systems such the young, the frail and the old, means that this risk should not be overlooked.