1976 Philadelphia Legionnaires' disease outbreak States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2017 only use the term Legionnaires' disease to refer to the serious version with pneumonia. CDC investigators quickly discovered outbreaks of respiratory disease caused by "L. pneumophila" dating back to 1959. An outbreak of what was dubbed Pontiac fever occurred in a health department in Pontiac, Michigan in July 1967. No one died. Although caused by the same bacterium, Pontiac fever is a milder ailment than Legionnaires' disease. Pneumonia is absent in those with Pontiac fever. An outbreak of pneumonia in July–August, 1965, at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC, which
Pneumonia adults began in 1977, and in children in 2000, resulting in a similar decline. Due to the relatively low awareness of the disease, 12 November was declared as the annual World Pneumonia Day, a day for concerned citizens and policy makers to take action against the disease, in 2009. The global economic cost of community-acquired pneumonia has been estimated at $17 billion annually. Other estimates are considerably higher. In 2012 the estimated aggregate costs of treating pneumonia in the United States were $20 billion; the median cost of a single pneumonia-related hospitalization is over $15,000. According to data released by