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present in the environment, such as the case of
Legionella
.
The increasing use of air conditioners (evaporative air cooler systems),
which spray water in the environment – water that comes froma reservoir with
plainconditions forbacterialproliferationandthat is sprayedthroughultrasonic
spray nozzles – creates particle sizes capable of reaching the pulmonary alveoli
bringing with them bacteria that may proliferate in the reservoir.
The hygiene conditions found during our inspections, that is: lack of
replacement of air filtering systems, existence of biofilm in the condensation
trays and cooling towers, and lack of cleaning in the ventilation ducts they are
all extremely favorable for the conditions of exposure.
Peoplegenerallydonot realize that thediseaseappearing in2to10daysafter
the contamination was acquired through indoor environment exposure, since
Legionellosis is not transmitted fromperson to person but fromenvironmental
sources.
Despite of the great number of pneumonia cases that we have every year,
the health care services do not usually think in Legionellosis as a differential
diagnosis, because this disease is difficult to be confirmed in laboratories and
not always the tests in the urgency services are available. Serological tests are
evenmore difficult to obtain in our area, to the point that we had to use services
abroad for this purpose.
It isurgent toturnthediagnosisofLegionellosis intoadiseaseofcompulsory
notification. And once it is diagnosed it is urgent to investigate the possible link
with the exposure in order to characterize it as an occupational disease.
Thecontrol of emissionsourceswill avoidconditionsof epidemicoutbreaks
with loss of lives - because the fatality rate is of 20 to 30%, which is aggravated
