Nosocomial legionellosis

Numerous reports of endemic legionellosis have been published within the past year. The scope has been expanded to longterm care facilities, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and pediatric hospitals. The institutional water supply has been the source in all reports and aspiration was explicitly linked as the mode of transmission in several reports, Discovery of a single case should not be considered as an isolated sporadic event, but instead indicative of unrecognized cases within that hospital. Copper-silver ionization has displaced hyperchlorination as the longterm disinfection modality of choice. Guidelines mandating the use of routine environmental cultures in hospital water supplies have been implemented in several American states and European countries. Curr Opin infect Dis 13:385-388, (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.