AJIC: American Journal of Infection Control
Volume 38, Issue 1 , Pages 50-55 , February 2010

Legionella species colonization in cooling towers: Risk factors and assessment of control measures

  • Varvara A. Mouchtouri, BSc, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Medical School, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece
    • Department of Public and Administrative Health, National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece
  • ,
  • Georgia Goutziana, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Medical School, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece
  • ,
  • Jenny Kremastinou, MD, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Public and Administrative Health, National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece
  • ,
  • Christos Hadjichristodoulou, MD, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Medical School, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to Christos Hadjichristodoulou, MD, PhD, Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Medical School, University of Thessaly, Papakiriazi Str, 22, 41222, Larissa, Greece.

References 

  1. World Health Organization . Legionella and the prevention of legionellosis. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2007;
  2. Shelton BG, Flanders WD, Morris GK. Legionnaires' disease outbreaks and cooling towers with amplified Legionella concentrations. Curr Microbiol. 1994;28:359–363
  3. Bentham RH. Routine sampling and the control of Legionella spp in cooling tower water systems. Curr Microbiol. 2000;41:271–275
  4. Ishimatsu S, Miyamoto H, Hori H, Tanaka I, Yoshida S. Sampling and detection of Legionella pneumophila aerosols generated from an industrial cooling tower. Ann Occup Hyg. 2001;45:421–427
  5. Lu HF, Tsou MF, Huang SY, Tsai WC, Chung JG, Cheng KS. Factors affecting the recovery of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 from cooling tower water systems. J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2001;34:161–166
  6. Engelhart S, Pleischl S, Luck C, Marklein G, Fischnaller E, Martin S, et al. Hospital-acquired legionellosis originating from a cooling tower during a period of thermal inversion. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2008;211:235–240
  7. Gilmour MW, Bernard K, Tracz DM, Olson AB, Corbett CR, Burdz T, et al. Molecular typing of a Legionella pneumophila outbreak in Ontario, Canada. J Med Microbiol. 2007;56:336–341
  8. Kirrage D, Reynolds G, Smith GE, Olowokure B. Investigation of an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease: Hereford, UK 2003. Respir Med. 2007;101:1639–1644
  9. Garcia-Fulgueiras A, Navarro C, Fenoll D, Garcia J, Gonzalez-Diego P, Jimenez-Bunuales T, et al. Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Murcia, Spain. Emerg Infect Dis. 2003;9:915–921
  10. Greig JE, Carnie JA, Tallis GF, Ryan NJ, Tan AG, Gordon IR, et al. An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at the Melbourne Aquarium, April 2000: investigation and case-control studies. Med J Aust. 2004;180:566–572
  11. Rota MC, Pontrelli G, Scaturro M, Bella A, Bellomo AR, Trinito MO, et al. Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Rome, Italy. Epidemiol Infect. 2005;133:853–859
  12. Phares CR, Russell E, Thigpen MC, Service W, Crist MB, Salyers M, et al. Legionnaires' disease among residents of a long-term care facility: the sentinel event in a community outbreak. Am J Infect Control. 2007;35:319–323
  13. Nguyen TM, Ilef D, Jarraud S, Rouil L, Campese C, Che D, et al. A community-wide outbreak of Legionnaires' disease linked to industrial cooling towers: how far can contaminated aerosols spread?. J Infect Dis. 2006;193:102–111
  14. Isakbaeva E, Blystad H. New legislation in Norway targets prevention of Legionnaires' disease. Eur Surveill. 2005;10:E050714
  15. European Working Group for Legionella Infections . European guidelines for control and prevention of travel-associated Legionnaires' disease. London: European Working Group for Legionella Infections; 2005;
  16. Yu VL. Cooling towers and legionellosis: a conundrum with proposed solutions. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2008;211:229–234
  17. Hadjichristodoulou C, Goutziana G, Mouchtouri V, Kapoula C, Konstantinidis A, Velonakis E, et al. Evaluation of standardized scored inspections for Legionnaires' disease prevention, during the Athens 2004 Olympics. Epidemiol Infect. 2006;134:1074–1081
  18. Yamamoto H, Sugiura M, Kusunoki S, Ezaki T, Ikedo M, Yabuuchi E. Factors stimulating propagation of legionellae in cooling tower water. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1992;58:1394–1397
  19. Ragull S, Garcia-Nunez M, Pedro-Botet ML, Sopena N, Esteve M, Montenegro R, et al. Legionella pneumophila in cooling towers: fluctuations in counts, determination of genetic variability by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and persistence of PFGE patterns. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2007;73:5382–5384
  20. Bhopal RS, Barr G. Maintenance of cooling towers following two outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease in a city. Epidemiol Infect. 1990;104:29–38
  21. Negron-Alvira A, Perez-Suarez I, Hazen TC. Legionella spp in Puerto Rico cooling towers. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1988;54:2331–2334
  22. Wery N, Bru-Adan V, Minervini C, Delgenes JP, Garrelly L, Godon JJ. Dynamics of Legionella spp and bacterial populations during the proliferation of L pneumophila in a cooling tower facility. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2008;74:3030–3037
  23. Turetgen I, Sungur EI, Cotuk A. Enumeration of Legionella pneumophila in cooling tower water systems. Environ Monit Assess. 2005;100:53–58
  24. Yamamoto H, Ezaki T, Ikedo M, Yabuuchi E. Effects of biocidal treatments to inhibit the growth of legionellae and other microorganisms in cooling towers. Microbiol Immunol. 1991;35:795–802

 Conflicts of interest: none to report.

PII: S0196-6553(09)00628-2

doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2009.04.285

AJIC: American Journal of Infection Control
Volume 38, Issue 1 , Pages 50-55 , February 2010