The water coming out of your faucets at home could be teeming with a live bacterium known to cause a potentially deadly form of pneumonia. New research published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology reveals that more than half of all U.S. tap water is likely contaminated with a bacterium linked to causing Legionnaires' disease, the symptoms of which include fever, cough and chills.
To make this discovery, researchers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) collected 272 water samples from 68 taps across the country over the course of two years. Upon analysis, 47 percent of these samples tested positive for Legionella pneumophila, a bacterium capable of developing into either Legionnaires' disease or the less-severe Pontiac fever upon infection -- these two conditions are collectively referred to as legionellosis.