军团病是由军团菌引起的，军团菌生活在自然和人工合成的水环境中。最常见的感染途径是吸入受污染的气溶胶，通常由水龙头、淋浴器或冷却塔产生。虽然这种疾病可以在饮用水中传播，但尚未研究市政水处理设施使用的消毒方法对退伍军人病发生的影响。本文描述了一项流行病学研究，比较了向发生退伍军人病暴发的32家医院供应的饮用水消毒方法与向48家随机选择的对照医院供应的饮用水消毒方法。 提供含有游离氯的饮用水的医院报告与饮用水有关的退伍军人病暴发的可能性是使用含有一氯胺的水作为残留消毒剂的医院的10.2倍（优势比——10.2；95%置信区间——1.4-460）。包括61篇参考文献、表格和图表。

Legionnaires' disease is caused by Legionella bacteria, which live in biofilmin natural and synthetic aquatic environments. The most frequent route of infection is inhalation of contaminated aerosol, which is often produced by faucets, showers, or cooling towers. Although the disease can be disseminated in potable water, the effects of the disinfection methods used by municipal water treatment facilities on the occurrence of Legionnaires' disease have not been studied. This article describes an epidemiological study in which methods for disinfecting potable water supplied to 32 hospitals where outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease have occurred are compared with methods for water supplied to 48 randomly selected control hospitals. Hospitals supplied with drinking water containing free chlorine were 10.2 times more likely to have reported an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease associated with potable water than hospitals that used water with monochloramine as a residual disinfectant (odds ratio--10.2; 95% confidence interval--1.4-460). Includes 61 references, table, figures.