A Community‐Wide Outbreak of Legionnaires Disease Linked to Industrial Cooling Towers—How Far Can Contaminated Aerosols Spread? | Zendy

Tran M Nguyen | Zendy; D. Ilèf | Zendy; Sophie Jarraud | Zendy; Laurence Rouïl | Zendy; C Campèse | Zendy; Didier Che | Zendy; S Haeghebaert | Zendy; François Ganiayre | Zendy; Frédéric Marcel | Zendy; Jérôme Etienne | Zendy; JeanClaude Desenclos | Zendy

Open Access

A Community‐Wide Outbreak of Legionnaires Disease Linked to Industrial Cooling Towers—How Far Can Contaminated Aerosols Spread?

Author(s) -

Tran M Nguyen,

D. Ilèf,

Sophie Jarraud,

Laurence Rouïl,

C Campèse,

Didier Che,

S Haeghebaert,

François Ganiayre,

Frédéric Marcel,

Jérôme Etienne,

JeanClaude Desenclos

Publication year - 2005

Publication title -

the journal of infectious diseases

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.69

H-Index - 252

eISSN - 1537-6613

pISSN - 0022-1899

DOI - 10.1086/498575

Subject(s) - outbreak , legionnaires' disease , legionella pneumophila , contamination , atmospheric dispersion modeling , legionella , environmental science , airborne transmission , environmental health , veterinary medicine , medicine , disease , biology , air pollution , virology , covid-19 , ecology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , bacteria , pathology , genetics

A community-wide outbreak of legionnaires disease occurred in Pas-de-Calais, France, in November 2003-January 2004. Eighteen (21%) of 86 laboratory-confirmed cases were fatal. A case-control study identified smoking, silicosis, and spending >100 min outdoors daily as risk factors for acquiring the disease. Legionella pneumophila strain Lens was isolated from cooling towers, wastewater, and air samples from plant A. This unique strain matched all 23 clinical isolates, as assessed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis subtyping. Modeling of atmospheric dispersion of aerosols emitted from plant A cooling towers showed good coverage of the communes where patients lived and showed that the dispersion extended over a distance of at least 6 km from plant A. No other aerosol-producing installation was identified as a plausible source, and no common source of indoor exposure was found. These findings implicate plant A as the most likely outbreak source and suggest that the distance of airborne transmission of L. pneumophila may be greater than previously reported.

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