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LEGIONELLA - World Health Organization

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9.4 Case studies<br />

This section describes:<br />

• a community outbreak in England (Section 9.4.1)<br />

• a health-care facility outbreak in Israel (Section 9.4.2)<br />

• an outbreak associated with hot tubs in Austria (Section 9.4.3)<br />

• a case of Legionnaires' disease associated with a concrete batcher process on a construction<br />

site in the UK (Section 9.4.4).<br />

9.4.1 Community outbreak — England<br />

In late 2003, 27 cases and two deaths were associated with an outbreak in a small city in England.<br />

As soon as the outbreak was recognized, the outbreak control team was convened. The team<br />

constructed a case definition, and carried out detailed epidemiological and environmental<br />

investigations.<br />

The source of the outbreak was shown to be the cooling towers at an industrial plant used to<br />

make cider. The industrial process involved switching on the cooling towers once a year, when<br />

the apples used to make the cider were delivered to the plant for processing.<br />

None of the workforce became ill, but clinical isolates obtained from two of the cases were<br />

indistinguishable by sequence-based typing methods from the environmental isolates obtained<br />

from the cooling tower water samples (Gaia et al., 2003).<br />

The investigation included use of meteorological data, plume modelling, helicopter infrared<br />

surveillance of potential sources of infection, and geographical information systems for analysis<br />

of patient travel in the local vicinity over the outbreak period.<br />

The outbreak was stopped when the cooling towers were shut down (Anon, 2003).<br />

9.4.2 Nosocomial outbreak — Israel<br />

During a two-week period in June–July 2000, a nosocomial outbreak of Legionella pneumonia<br />

caused by L. pneumophila serogroup 3 occurred in four patients, following haematopoietic<br />

stem cell transplantation, in a new bone marrow transplant unit. The causative organism was<br />

recovered from the water supply system to the same unit, just before the outbreak occurred.<br />

Serologic screening revealed no other cases of Legionella pneumonia in 19 consecutive bone<br />

marrow transplant patients hospitalized in the same unit at the same time.<br />

The outbreak was contained by early recognition, immediate restrictions of the use of tap water,<br />

antibiotic prophylaxis for all non-infected patients, and water decontamination by hyperchlorination<br />

and superheating. In November 2000 and February 2001, two more nosocomially acquired<br />

cases occurred, along with the re-emergence of Legionella in the water.<br />

<strong>LEGIONELLA</strong> AND THE PREVENTION OF LEGIONELLOSIS

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