Legionella News and Research

RSS

Environmental tests help predict hospital-acquired Legionnaires' disease risk

A new study spearheaded by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has determined that environmental monitoring of institutional water systems can help to predict the risk of hospital-acquired Legionella pneumonia, better known as Legionnaires disease.

24 Aug 2007

Foot and mouth spreads even further in the UK

It now appears that the foot-and-mouth outbreak in England has spread outside the protection zone, dashing any hopes that the disease had been contained.

12 Aug 2007

Legionnaires' disease in Surrey with links to Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright

The Health Protection Agency can confirm that its Surrey Health Protection Unit is involved in an investigation with the Health and Safety Executive and local environmental health officers of a reported case of Legionnaires' disease with alleged links to the Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright, in Surrey .

12 Aug 2007

Summer's here so look out for Legionnaires disease

Summer's here and the living isn't always so easy especially if youre in the hospital. Patients who are vulnerable to infection run a greater risk of contracting Legionnaires disease, a severe form of pneumonia, during warm, humid weather, according to a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

28 Jun 2007

Fecal microbes high in New Orleans sediments following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

In a new study documenting the microbial landscape of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, scientists report that sediments in interior portions of the city appear to be contaminated with fecal microbes, a chronic condition they say persisted in the area before the hurricanes, and that the resulting water quality in the city and in nearshore waters of the lake continues to be impacted by discharges from this contamination.

4 May 2007

New guidelines for healthy swimming

The World Health Organization (WHO) is launching the world's first-ever international guidelines on how to create safe places to swim and bathe.

28 Jun 2006

Amoebe promote persistence of epidemic strains of MRSA

Scientists in the UK have found that a type of amoeba acts as an incubator for MRSA bacteria. As amoebae are often found in healthcare environments this discovery has implications for the infection control strategies adopted by hospitals.

31 Mar 2006

Scientists show how MRSA sidesteps hospital protection measures

The MRSA 'superbug' evades many of the measures introduced to combat its spread by infecting a common single-celled organism found almost everywhere in hospital wards, according to new research published in the journal Environmental Microbiology.

1 Mar 2006

Three dead in New Zealand from legionnaires' disease

Three people have died in an outbreak of legionnaires' disease in Christchurch, New Zealand.

9 Aug 2005

Legionnaire's disease confirmed at New York hospital

A New York hospital has confirmed that an autopsy on one of the patients who died while being treated for suspected Legionnaire's disease did have the disease. The New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center say they are taking the matter very seriously and are implementing all necessary measures to insure the safety of patients.

26 Apr 2005