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regulations and disseminating knowledge and technical guidelines to alert
the public and technical community about the risks of
Legionella
.
Meanwhile, apart from public policies, there is huge omission from
the private sector in minimizing
Legionella
risks. Government action is
important, but private initiative is essential to prevent risks in their own
water systems (that includes any kind of system: hot and cold drinking
water systems, cooling towers water systems, fountains and others).
To prove this point, it is necessary to think about some characteristics of
thisparticulardisease.OnedoesnotcatchLegionnaire’sdiseasebymaintaining
contact with infected people, in other words, legionellosis is not the kind of
infection that is transmitted uncontrollably among a community. The origin
of any
Legionella
infection is a specific and identifiable water system (that
can be a HVAC cooling tower system, a residential house’s drinking water
system or even a high standard hotel’s hot water system) and all infections
have some geographical and limited relation with the source of infection. In
any Legionnaire’s disease case or outbreak there is just one source spreading
Legionella
to the environment, infecting just those that had direct contact with
the contaminated water. We can think backwards: in any case or outbreak, it
is possible to identify not only the source of contamination but also the ones
responsible for allowing
Legionella
to spread.
Based on the knowledge of this characteristic of legionellosis, it is
possible to understand why the private sector, being in great part negligent
to
Legionella
risks in their water systems, is also responsible for the silent
outbreaks not only in Brazil but also in other parts of the world.
However, which tool should the ones responsible for water systems use
to deal with this situation?
