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Persistence of the Same Strain of Legionella pneumophila in the Water System of an Italian Hospital for 15 Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

M. Scaturro ,
I. Dell'Eva ,
F. Helfer  and
M. L. Ricci
M. Scaturro*
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious, Parasitic, and Immune-mediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome
I. Dell'Eva
Affiliation:
Azienda Provinciale per i Servizi Sanitari, Direzione Igiene e Sanità Pubblica, Trento, Italy
F. Helfer
Affiliation:
Azienda Provinciale per i Servizi Sanitari, Direzione Igiene e Sanità Pubblica, Trento, Italy
M. L. Ricci
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious, Parasitic, and Immune-mediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome
*
Department of Infectious, Parasitic, and Immune-mediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena, 299– 00161- Rome, Italy (maria.scaturro@iss.it)
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Abstract

In 2004, an outbreak of legionnaires disease occurred in a hospital in northern Italy with a water system that had been disinfected multiple times since 1990 and equipped with a continuous disinfecting system. Molecular typing linked the outbreak to contamination of the hospital water system and demonstrated the persistence of a predominant strain of Legionella pneumophila for 15 years.

Type
Concise Communications
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 28 , Issue 9 , September 2007 , pp. 1089 - 1092
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2007

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