Long-term persistence of a single Legionella pneumophila strain possessing the mip gene in a municipal shower despite repeated cycles of chlorination

The Journal of Hospital Infection
I R CooperG W Hanlon

Abstract

The ability of Legionella pneumophila to colonise domestic water systems is a primary cause of outbreaks of Legionnaire's disease in humans. World Health Organization guidelines recommend that drinking water is chlorinated to between 0.2 and 1mg/L [Chlorine in drinking-water. Guidelines for drinking-water quality, 2nd edn. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1996], but L. pneumophila is repeatedly isolated from chlorinated water systems, indicating that this treatment is not effective at preventing colonisation. Current UK guidelines recommend a one-off treatment of 20-50mg/L of free chlorine to remove the bacteria. In this study we report on the persistence of L. pneumophila serogroup 1 in a domestic shower system despite repeated cycles of chlorination at 50mg/L for 1h exposure time, over the course of two and a half years. Persisting isolates were subjected to in-vitro phenotypic analyses and polymerase chain reaction analysis for the toxin-encoding mip gene. Random amplified polymorphic DNA typing was also performed to determine whether the isolates recovered on different occasions were the same strain. We found that seven isolates of L. pneumophila recovered over a two-and-a-half year period are the same genetically defined...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

Oct 21, 2011·Biofouling·A BridierF Dubois-Brissonnet
May 25, 2010·International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health·Rosemarie S RoederUlrich Szewzyk
Sep 29, 2009·The Journal of Hospital Infection·I R Cooper, G W Hanlon
Feb 14, 2014·Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology : the Official Journal of the Society of Hospital Epidemiologists of America·Beatrice CasiniGaetano Privitera
Apr 20, 2014·Journal of Pathogens·Dimitra Dimitriadi, Emmanuel Velonakis
Aug 4, 2016·Biofouling·Laurence MathieuJean-Claude Block
Nov 7, 2016·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Jingrang LuNicholas Ashbolt
Jan 9, 2015·Clinical Microbiology Reviews·Jeffrey W Mercante, Jonas M Winchell
Jul 23, 2021·Klinicheskaia laboratornaia diagnostika·Elena Vladimirovna DetushevaN K Fursova
Mar 21, 2019·Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology·Mao ShakuYoshihiro Yamaguchi

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