I
The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, June 10. 1980-Page 13
Legionnaires'
Disease may
kill more tlan
70,000 yearly
From UPIand AP
CHICAGO - Legionnaires' disease
may be the unreported killer of more
than 70,000 Americans each year, an
Ohio research team reported yester-
day.
That conclusion was reached on the
basis of atuopsy studies of lungs from
224 patients in Columbus, Ohio. Lungs
of 6.6 per cent of those who had died of
pneumonia had been infected with the
Legionella penumophila bacteria that
cause the respiratory ailment.
DR. DALE FAY of Riverside
Methodist Hospital in Columbus said
Legionnaires' disease may cause up to
3.6 per cent of the pneumonias in cen-
AP Photo tral Ohio. He said if that incidence is
Silver linig - applied to the nation's entire adult
A silver lining of 1,080 small tubes surrounds a Rockwell International population, an estimated 71,370
Corporation technician at a plant in Canoga Park, California recently. The Americans may be dying each year
technician is adding finishing touches to a nozzle for the Space Shuttle from unrecognized cases of the disease.
Main Engine, the world's most advanced liquid rocket engine which Rock- Many of the victims also suffer from
well's Rocketdyne Division is producing for NASA. Liquid hydrogen terminal illness of another type and
propellent flows through the tubes lining the nozzle to cool it against high effective treatment, said the yrecee
temperature encountered during engine operation.,-e
Convicted murderer Potts asks
judge to drop execution appeal
Others, Fay said, may be basically
healthy and would respond to treat-
ment.
"Until. prospective diagnostic
techniques become available,
recognition of the disease must depend
on clinical acumen if mortality is to be
kept within acceptable limits," said
Fay.
SOME OF those whose lungs were in-
fected with Legionnaires' disease
organisms had shown no significant
respiratory symptoms or fever,
although pneumonia contributed
significantly to their deaths, Fay repor-
ted.
An accurate rate of Legionnaires'
disease, he added, can only be detected
if the hospital routinely examines lung
tissue during the autopsy.
In addition, Fay said bedause the
deaths in the Ohio study were spread
throughout the study year and other
cases of Legionnaires' disease hadbeen
detected before that year, research
shows that the persons who contracted
the disease did not do so during an out-
break.
THERIFORE, HE said, the study
seems to show that the disease may oc-
cur consistently at a low rate in central
Ohio.
He said it is not known what would
make the disease endemic to the area,
except that it would need the right tem-
perature, a sufficient number of
susceptible hosts, and a satisfactory
way to transfer from one host to
another.
He said air-conditioning units have
been suspected as the possible source of
the Legionnaires' disease bacteria in
several outbresks.
Legionnaires' disease was discovered
by scientists from the Center for'
Disease Control in Atlanta following the
outbreak of the disease at an American
Legion convention in Philadelphia in
1976. Nearly 200 persons were stricken
and 29 died.
ATLANTA (AP) - Convicted mur-
derer Jack Potts, who avoided the elec-
tric chair last week with a last-minute
renewal of his appeals, changed his
mind again and asked a federal judge
yesterday to drop the appeals.
U.S. District Judge William O'Kelley,
who received the request in a letter
from the condemned man, set a hearing
for this morning to consider it and or-
dered that Potts be brought from the
Georgia State Prison near Reidsville to
appear in court.
IF POTTS' request were granted, his
execution could occur within a month.
De mocrats try
Anderson's lii
(Continued from Page7)
WHEN 50 STATE Democratic
chairmen went home last Friday night
from a day-long strategy session, after
a pep talk and handshakes from Carter,
they carried away packets of infor-
mation on Anderson's positions and
voting record,
The material, made available to The
Associated Press, was intended to show
that Anderson should be judged "by his
19 years in the Republican
congressional mainstream" rather
than "by his 'progressive' campaign
rhetoric."
Anderson, a lifelong Republican,
became an independent presidential
candidate April 24. '
If he were electrocuted, he would be
the first person executed in Georgia in
16 years and only the fourth in the
United States in more than a decade.
"The only reason I asked for the ap-
peal was. to satisfy my brother who I
love very much, judge. I had no idea the
stay would be granted," Potts wrote in
the letter, which was dated Friday.
"Let me get a dateset immediately and
most of all let me die while in a state of
grace!"
THE LETTER was witnessed by Pot-
ts' mother, Carolyn Potts.
In a written order, the judge said Pot-
to undercut
)eral appeal
THE DEMOCRATS' documents ac-
cuse him of taking both sides on some
sensitive issues and charge him with
minimizing his past conservatism in in-
terviews with reporters.
The packet says Anderson and
Reagan have taken the same position -
opposite from Carter - on 20 issues of
particular importance to liberals.
Among them are national health in-
surance, minimum wage restrictions,
food stamp cutbacks, building the B-1
bomber, and labor law changes sought
by the AFL-CIO.
Many Democrats believe Anderson
will drain more votes from the
Democratic ticket than from Reagan,
the prospective Republican nominee.
ts would be brought to today's hearing
"so that the court may determine his
competence and whether or not his ac-
tion in requesting the withdrawal of this
action is freely and voluntarily given
with full knowledge and understanding
of the consequences of his actions."
In 1975, Potts received a pair of death
sentences in the kidnapping and mur-
der of Michael Priest, a 24-year-old
father of two.
LAST FALL Potts fired his attorneys
and said he would rather be executed
immediately than postpone the
inevitable while living under what he
considered intolerable prison con-
ditions.
Potts was scheduled to die last Thur-
sday at 10:30 a.m. But at 7 p.m., Wed-
nesday, after his brother and a former
girlfriend pleaded with him all day,
Potts agreed to authorize new appeals
and name anti-death penalty attorney
Millard Farmer to handle his case.
Judge O'Kelley signed a stay of
execution later Wednesday evening.
Farmer said he had talked with Potts
on Sunday at the Georgia State Prison
near Reidsville, and now believes prison
officials humiliated Potts, influencing
the decision to drop the appeals.