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Associated Legionnaires’ Disease - EWGLINET. In April of 2010, these
groups went to the coordination of the ECDC (European Center for Disease
Prevention and Control) under the name of European Legionnaires’ Disease
Surveillance Network. The intention of these international groups is to give
support to the countries to identify and fight outbreaks caused by
Legionella
and also to assist in the disclosure and awareness of the role of those in charge
for the water systems, specially those having the risk to spread the hardest
traceable form of the disease, i.e., when it is associated to travels.
Statistically in Europe approximately 20% of the cases of Legionnaires’
disease is associated to travels to the point that in 50% of all the reported
cases in some countries the disease was acquired abroad.
Inahotel enterprise therearesomepeculiaritiesconcerningtheriskassociatedto
Legionella
, because the accommodations are designed for temporary stay, sometimes
with quite abrupt seasonal variations, besides of cold and hot water systems that are
extremely complex to satisfy the individual demands of each accommodation. This
causesatendencyofwaterstagnation(incoldandhotpotablewatersystems)andalso
adifficulty toavoid the escalationof the stagnation(anenterprise canhave thousands
ofunitsof showers).This situation, amongothers, canincrease therisks inthesystems
that are traditionally listed as themost dangerous for the proliferationof
Legionella
.
The typical usages in a hotel that represent risks can be quite diverse.
The traditional critical points include the cooling systems (particularly
towers and evaporative condensers), fan coils, air treatment units and
showers (both from the accommodations and from the showers for
the collaborators). However, there are other systems depending on the
complexity of the enterprise that should also have attention. Those are the
swimming pool showers, spas, whirlpools, decorative fountains in lobbies
and external areas, irrigation systems for gardens and landscaped areas.
