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Presence of Legionella spp. in Hot Water Networks of Different Italian Residential Buildings: A Three-Year Survey

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 (I...

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Autores principales: Totaro, Michele, Valentini, Paola, Costa, Anna Laura, Frendo, Lorenzo, Cappello, Alessia, Casini, Beatrice, Miccoli, Mario, Privitera, Gaetano, Baggiani, Angelo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5707935/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29072607
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111296
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author Totaro, Michele
Valentini, Paola
Costa, Anna Laura
Frendo, Lorenzo
Cappello, Alessia
Casini, Beatrice
Miccoli, Mario
Privitera, Gaetano
Baggiani, Angelo
author_facet Totaro, Michele
Valentini, Paola
Costa, Anna Laura
Frendo, Lorenzo
Cappello, Alessia
Casini, Beatrice
Miccoli, Mario
Privitera, Gaetano
Baggiani, Angelo
author_sort Totaro, Michele
collection PubMed
description 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 system for hot water production (TB). From all the 220 buildings Legionella spp. was researched in two hot water samples collected either at the recirculation point or on the first floor and on the last floor, while the potable water quality was analysed in three cold water samples collected at the inlet from the aqueduct network, at the exit from the autoclave, and at the most remote tap. Legionella pneumophila sg1, Legionella pneumophila sg2–16, and non-pneumophila Legionella species were detected in 26% of the hot water networks, mostly in CB and TB. In these buildings we detected correlations between the presence of Legionella and the total chlorine concentration decrease and/or the increase of the temperature. Cold water resulted free from microbiological hazards, with the exception of Serratia liquefaciens and Enterobacter cloacae isolated at the exit from two different autoclaves. We observed an increase in total microbial counts at 22 °C and 37 °C between the samples collected at the most remote taps compared to the ones collected at the inlet from the aqueduct. The study highlights a condition of potential risk for susceptible categories of population and supports the need for measures of risk assessment and control.
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spelling pubmed-57079352017-12-05 Presence of Legionella spp. in Hot Water Networks of Different Italian Residential Buildings: A Three-Year Survey Totaro, Michele Valentini, Paola Costa, Anna Laura Frendo, Lorenzo Cappello, Alessia Casini, Beatrice Miccoli, Mario Privitera, Gaetano Baggiani, Angelo Int J Environ Res Public Health Article 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 system for hot water production (TB). From all the 220 buildings Legionella spp. was researched in two hot water samples collected either at the recirculation point or on the first floor and on the last floor, while the potable water quality was analysed in three cold water samples collected at the inlet from the aqueduct network, at the exit from the autoclave, and at the most remote tap. Legionella pneumophila sg1, Legionella pneumophila sg2–16, and non-pneumophila Legionella species were detected in 26% of the hot water networks, mostly in CB and TB. In these buildings we detected correlations between the presence of Legionella and the total chlorine concentration decrease and/or the increase of the temperature. Cold water resulted free from microbiological hazards, with the exception of Serratia liquefaciens and Enterobacter cloacae isolated at the exit from two different autoclaves. We observed an increase in total microbial counts at 22 °C and 37 °C between the samples collected at the most remote taps compared to the ones collected at the inlet from the aqueduct. The study highlights a condition of potential risk for susceptible categories of population and supports the need for measures of risk assessment and control. MDPI 2017-10-26 2017-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5707935/ /pubmed/29072607 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111296 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Totaro, Michele
Valentini, Paola
Costa, Anna Laura
Frendo, Lorenzo
Cappello, Alessia
Casini, Beatrice
Miccoli, Mario
Privitera, Gaetano
Baggiani, Angelo
Presence of Legionella spp. in Hot Water Networks of Different Italian Residential Buildings: A Three-Year Survey
title Presence of Legionella spp. in Hot Water Networks of Different Italian Residential Buildings: A Three-Year Survey
title_full Presence of Legionella spp. in Hot Water Networks of Different Italian Residential Buildings: A Three-Year Survey
title_fullStr Presence of Legionella spp. in Hot Water Networks of Different Italian Residential Buildings: A Three-Year Survey
title_full_unstemmed Presence of Legionella spp. in Hot Water Networks of Different Italian Residential Buildings: A Three-Year Survey
title_short Presence of Legionella spp. in Hot Water Networks of Different Italian Residential Buildings: A Three-Year Survey
title_sort presence of legionella spp. in hot water networks of different italian residential buildings: a three-year survey
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5707935/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29072607
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111296
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