Environmental Monitoring of Legionella in Hospitals in the Campania Region: A 5-Year Study

is a pathogen that colonizes soils, freshwater, and building water systems. People who are most affected are those with immunodeficiencies, so it is necessary to monitor its presence in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the presence of in water samples collected from hospitals in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2023-04, Vol.20 (8), p.5526
Main Authors: Lombardi, Annalisa, Borriello, Tonia, De Rosa, Elvira, Di Duca, Fabiana, Sorrentino, Michele, Torre, Ida, Montuori, Paolo, Trama, Ugo, Pennino, Francesca
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air conditioning
Chlorine
Chlorine - analysis
Contamination
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Demolition
Disease
Disinfection
Environmental Monitoring
Epidemics
Health facilities
Hospitalization
Hospitals
Humans
Immune system
Infections
Legionella
Legionella pneumophila
Microbiological analysis
Performance evaluation
Pneumonia
Pollution control
Public health
Residual chlorine
Soil contamination
Soil water
Telemedicine
Water - analysis
Water Microbiology
Water sampling
Water Supply
Water temperature
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Summary:is a pathogen that colonizes soils, freshwater, and building water systems. People who are most affected are those with immunodeficiencies, so it is necessary to monitor its presence in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the presence of in water samples collected from hospitals in the Campania region, Southern Italy. A total of 3365 water samples were collected from January 2018 to December 2022 twice a year in hospital wards from taps and showers, tank bottoms, and air-treatment units. Microbiological analysis was conducted in accordance with the UNI EN ISO 11731:2017, and the correlations between the presence of and water temperature and residual chlorine were investigated. In total, 708 samples (21.0%) tested positive. The most represented species was 2-14 (70.9%). The serogroups isolated were 1 (27.7%), 6 (24.5%), 8 (23.3%), 3 (18.9%), 5 (3.1%), and 10 (1.1%). Non- spp. represented 1.4% of the total. Regarding temperature, the majority of positive samples were found in the temperature range of 26.0-40.9 °C. An influence of residual chlorine on the presence of the bacterium was observed, confirming that chlorine disinfection is effective for controlling contamination. The positivity for serogroups other than serogroup 1 suggested the need to continue environmental monitoring of and to focus on the clinical diagnosis of other serogroups.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph20085526