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Query: UMLS:C0023241 (Legionella)
 6,990 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

While the "traditional" way to measure Legionella quantitatively in water is based on a complex culture method where results can take up to 14 days, the last few years have seen the availability of very rapid real-time monitoring of the bacterium in water systems, with the development of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), a process which gives results "within hours". To date, however, a lack of consensus on how to interpret such results in relation to those from culture has been a stumbling block, although, as Susan Pearson, a freelance journalist and public relations consultant specialising in medicine and the environment, reports, the positive results of a recent multi-centre European study mean this could soon all change.
Health Estate 2011 Aug
PMID:Faster Legionella testing on horizon. 2185 65

A comprehensive introduction to water risk and legislation, with a particular focus on the challenges in healthcare, was provided by Blane Judd, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE), at a recent IHEEM seminar in London. In the spotlight in the presentation, part of a seminar entitled "Total water management within healthcare premises" were subjects ranging from how to deal with Legionella, and the dangers and potential costs of misconnection, to how to minimise scalding, especially among vulnerable patients, and the infection risks inherent in hydrotherapy pool use. HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie reports.
Health Estate 2011 Jan
PMID:Reducing risk through 'not cutting corners'. 2205 55

Stuart Watkin BEng (Hons) MSc CEng MIHEEM, head of Engineering Compliance & Energy at North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, reports on a recent six-month trial, at the Trust's University Hospital of North Tees, of a new saline-based disinfection system for combating Legionella. The system, from Danish company, DCW, has reportedly proven highly effective in keeping the water system at the test site, the hospital's North Wing, Legionella-free, impressing both estates and facilities/engineering personnel, and an independent consultant, with both its efficacy and lack of "side-effects".
Health Estate 2011 Nov
PMID:Legionella eliminated with no 'side-effects'. 2236 80

Susan Pearson BSc reports on a recent specialist waterborne diseases 'masterclass' held in Nottingham, at which leading experts discussed not only the control of Pseudomonas, but also other problematic waterborne pathogens such as Legionella, the cause of Legionnaires' disease. The Pall Medical-sponsored event provided plenty of 'food for thought' for estates and facilities personnel responsible for hospital water systems, and clearly demonstrated how difficult and persistent a foe organisms such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Legionella pneumophila, which, if left unchecked, pose significant patient health risks, can be.
Health Estate 2012 Aug
PMID:A practical approach to ensuring safe water. 2298 41

Speaking at a recent IHEEM seminar focusing on some of the key water hygiene and safety, and waterborne infection prevention issues, facing healthcare estates/ engineering personnel responsible for 'large, complex' water systems, Dr Nick Hill, technical director of the Water Hygiene Centre, examined some of the continuing areas of uncertainty over the characteristics and properties of different Legionella serogroups, the colonisation levels necessary to cause illness in individuals of varying susceptibility, potential sources, and the materials most likely to harbour the bacterium, and discussed effective methods for killing the organism, and preventing its spread. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.
Health Estate 2012 Sep
PMID:Considering the 'known unknowns'. 2300 14

A recent IHEEM seminar on water hygiene and safety, 'The Invisible Threat', saw John Newbold, an HM specialist inspector at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) with experience investigating Legionella cases and outbreaks, provide useful insight into how healthcare estates engineers and other 'responsible' personnel could ensure compliance with the law by properly 'managing and controlling' Legionella risk. He provided a first-hand view of what he dubbed 'some of the common mistakes' made by those responsible for managing water system safety, and gave useful advice and guidance on how to avoid them, and thus minimise the risk of falling foul of the HSE and other regulators. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.
Health Estate 2012 Oct
PMID:HSE inspector advises on 'common mistakes'. 2314

Steve Mount, an independent Legionella management consultant and trainer with over 25 years' previous experience in microbiology and UKAS-accredited Legionella analysis, underlines the rising number of nosocomial cases of Legionnaires' disease in recent years, and explains the key risk assessment, management, and monitoring steps that must be taken by those responsible for hospital water systems to comply with legislation governing the 'control and management' of Legionella risk.
Health Estate 2012 Oct
PMID:Legionnaires' disease--risk management. 2314 1

When measures to prevent Legionella fail, and a positive result is returned from the laboratory, there is an imperative to act fast to stamp infection out, but taking the right action requires a rigorous approach. So says Andrew Steel, managing director of Airmec, a provider of essential air and water services solutions. Here he explains the legal and other obligations of health estates managers in taking all possible steps to prevent a Legionella outbreak, and, when they do face one, sets out the key remedial steps, and outlines what regulators or HSE personnel will expect to see as 'evidence' that sufficient 'duty of care' has been taken.
Health Estate 2013 Mar
PMID:Be prepared should Legionella strike. 2357 86

Since 1 February this year, under the EU's Biocidal Products Directive, it has been illegal to sell or use water treatment systems that use elemental copper, a practice employed historically by a significant number of UK healthcare facilities to combat Legionella. Alan Lester, managing director of specialist supplier of 'environmentally-friendly' water treatment systems, Advanced Hydro, says the ban has caused 'a storm of giant proportion,' with advocates of copper ion-based treatment systems arguing that this disinfection method dates back 3,000 years to Egyptian times, making it an 'undoubtedly proven' technology. Here he explains why the ban came into force, considers why the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is seeking a derogation, looks at the ban's likely impact, and gives a personal viewpoint on the 'pros and cons' of some of the alternative treatment technologies, including a titanium dioxide-based system marketed by Advanced Hydro itself in the UK.
Health Estate 2013 May
PMID:Copper disinfection ban causes storm. 2376 88

The key steps that can be taken to minimise the risk of harmful waterborne bacteria such as Legionella and Pseudomonas proliferating widely through water systems in healthcare premises were discussed in detail during a recent two-day event staged by Delabie, one of Europe's leading water control and sanitary equipment suppliers, at the company's Friville headquarters in Picardy, northern France. As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports, the event, held in an impressive training centre close to a sizeable factory that exports products ranging from antibacterial taps and showers to grab rails to over 70 countries worldwide, also provided the opportunity for sharing of expertise and experience between the host personnel and a group of 17 public health engineers from throughout England and Scotland, who attended as guests.
Health Estate 2013 Jun
PMID:Innovation flows at Friville facility. 2386 39


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