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A Legionellosis Case Due to Contaminated Spa Water and Confirmed by Genomic Identification in Taiwan
Author(s) -
Su HsunPi,
Tseng LeiRon,
Tzeng ShinChan,
Chou ChenYing,
Chung TungChing
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
microbiology and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1348-0421
pISSN - 0385-5600
DOI - 10.1111/j.1348-0421.2006.tb03803.x
Subject(s) - biology , identification (biology) , contamination , contaminated water , legionella , computational biology , microbiology and biotechnology , environmental chemistry , genetics , ecology , bacteria , chemistry
Tracing the source of a legionellosis (LG) case revealed that the Legionella pneumophila (LP) strain isolated from patient's sputum shared the same serogroup (SG) and PFGE‐type with 4 LP strains obtained from a spa center. With a high LP‐contamination rate (81.2%, 13/16) in all of its 16 basins, this spa center was also found to have a multi‐genotypic distribution among its 13 LP isolates, which can be categorized into 5 PFGE‐types. Despite such a serious contamination in the spa center, which usually had ca. 100 visitors per day, this male patient, bearing LG‐risk factors of long‐term heavy smoking and alcoholism, was the only case identifiable after an active investigation. To explore the possible reason for this sporadic infection, all 5 PFGE‐types of LP isolated were assayed for their presence of two important virulent genes ( lvh and rtxA ) and were identified as either less‐virulent ( lvh + , rtxA – ) or non‐virulent ( lvh – , rtxA – ) types. The strong virulent type ( lvh + , rtxA + ) usually seen in clinical strains elsewhere was not found here. Moreover, the LG‐causative type in this infection was the only one to be classified as the less‐virulent type, with the presence of lvh gene indicating its relatively more virulent potential than other 4 PFGE‐types. Accordingly, mutual interaction between LP's virulent potential and patient's health‐status was suggested to be the force directing the opportunistic infection of this sporadic case. This is the first spa‐associated infection caused by SG 2 of LP.