Legionnaires’ disease - Annual Epidemiological Report for 2018

Legionnaires’ disease remains an uncommon and mainly sporadic respiratory infection with an overall notification rate of 2.2 per 100 000 for the EU/EEA in 2018. There is heterogeneity in notification rates between EU/EEA countries, with the highest rate reported by Slovenia (7.7 per 100 000). The annual notification rate increased continuously over the period 2014–2018, from 1.3 per 100 000 in 2014 to 2.2 in 2018. There was a 23% increase in the number of cases in 2018 compared with 2017.Four countries (France, Germany, Italy and Spain) accounted for 71% of all notified cases in 2018. Males aged 65 years and above were most affected (8.5 per 100 000).