engleski

Bus Water Storage Tank as a Reservoir of Legionella pneumophila

Health concerns assoiciated with Legionnaires' disease have been identified as an area of the increasing public and professional interest. Any natural water or man-made water systems worldwide might be reservoirs of Legionellae. We presented a sporadic. community-acquired case of Legionnaires' diseases caused by Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 in a bus driver who used for hand and face washing from a bus water storage tank. The history of any other usual place of exposure to Legionellae was negative. The water from the tank was dirty, filled with sediment and leaves, at the temperature of 22 C.The water was heavily contamined with Legionella pneumophila serogroup I isolated from each sample with the concentration of 66, 000, 16, 000, 42, 000, 56, 000 and CFU/L. The disinfection of the bus water storage tanks was made using hyperclorination with 50 mg/L free residual chlorine. The control sampling one week after the disinfection yielded negative results. So far, there are no reasonable to assume that passengers as well as bus drivers may be exposed to Legionnela and therefore at risk of acquiring the infection. These recommendations should include regular empting, rising and filling the tank with fresh tap water, at least once a week. Finally, we have to aware that Legionella bacteria are ubiquitous and potential mode of producing contaminated aerosol should not be overlooked during an epidemiological field investigtion and proposed appropiate measures.

Legionellae ; Legionella pneumophila ; Legionnaries' diseases ; bus public transport ; water storage tank ; hypeclorination ; prevention ; Croatia

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