BACKGROUND Legionella pneumophila is increasingly recognised as a significant cause of sporadic and epidemic community-acquired and nosocomial pneumonia. Many studies describe the frequency and severity of Legionella spp. contamination in spa pools, natural pools, hotels and ships, but there is no study analysing the environmental monitoring of Legionella on board trains. The aims of the presen...

The study aimed to assess the prevalence of Legionella spp. in dental unit waterlines of a dental clinic and to verify whether the microbiological parameters used as indicators of water quality were correlated with Legionella contamination. A risk management plan was subsequently implemented in the dental health care setting, in order to verify whether the adopted disinfection protocols were ef...

legionella pneumophila, the causative agent of legionnaires’ diseases (ld) is usually transmitted to humans via inhalation of aerosols from contaminated natural and manmade water sources. these organisms may become fatal especially in immunocompromised patients and ld is the one of the important disease from a public health perspective. this survey investigated the frequency of legionella spp. ...

To elucidate the role of ameba-associated microorganisms (AAMs) as etiologic agents of pneumonia, we screened for Legionella spp., Parachlamydia acanthamoeba, Afipia sp., Bosea spp., Bradyrhizobium spp., Mesorhizobium amorphae, Rasbo bacterium, Azorhizobium caulinodans, Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus, and conventional microorganisms in 210 pneumonia patients in intensive-care units by using c...

BACKGROUND: Legionella spp. in groundwater sources have been reported to be the cause of waterborne infections, specifically Legionnaire’s Disease and Pontiac Fever. Legionellae are known to be ubiquitous in surface waters, but much less is known about their occurrence in groundwater, which is the source of potable water for millions in North America. Federal drinking water regulations may not ...

Although the European reports highlight an increase in community-acquired Legionnaires’ disease cases, the risk of Legionella spp. in private houses is underestimated. In Pisa (Italy) we performed a three-year survey on Legionella presence in 121 buildings with an independent hot water production (IB); 64 buildings with a central hot water production (CB); and 35 buildings with a solar thermal ...

A reverse passive agglutination method was developed to detect soluble antigens of Legionella spp. By this method Legionella antigens were detected in urine specimens from 14 of 15 antigenuric patients with clinically diagnosed Legionnaires disease and in none of 263 urine samples from healthy subjects or patients with urinary tract infections. Intra-genus cross-reactivity was observed only bet...

Methods During a routine control of hospital water, contamination with Legionella spp. was detected. To protect the patients from exposure to Legionella, shower heads were replaced by point-of-use shower filters (H2OK medical filters, Norit Filtrix, The Netherlands). The efficacy of 4 shower filters was tested during 5 weeks. Water samples were taken with and without use of the shower filter an...

Pneumonia is one of the most frequent complications in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-patients with Pneumocystis carinii as the leading cause. The true prevalence of atypical agents such as Chlamydia pneumoniae, C. trachomatis, Legionella pneumophila and Mycoplasma pneumoniae in this population of patients is unknown as the currently used method for diagnosing these agents is measurement of...

A commercial DNA probe kit designed to detect rRNA from legionellae was evaluated for its ability to correctly discriminate between legionellae and non-legionellae taken from culture plates. The probe kit, made by the Gen-Probe Corp. (San Diego, Calif.), was radiolabeled with 125I, and probe bacterial RNA hybridization, detected in a simple one-tube system hybridization assay, was quantitated w...