ESGLI, the ESCMID (European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases) Study Group for Legionella Infections, has recently published guidance designed to help personnel such as healthcare engineers and healthcare estates managers keep water systems safe during the current COVID-19 outbreak.
The guidance is aimed at ‘hospitals, temporary and converted buildings, or parts of buildings and field hospitals used for treating COVID-19 patients’. ESGLI points out that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic ‘has a significant potential to increase the risks of waterborne infections, including Legionnaire’s disease, over and above the inherent public health impact of the pandemic’. The organisation said: “It is therefore essential that appropriate testing of both water systems and patients is carried out to protect both patients and staff from unrecognised outbreaks of waterborne infections, including Legionnaires’ disease.
The guidance is viewable at: https://www.escmid.org/research_projects/study_groups/legionella_infections/
