Addressing ‘Unholy Trinity’ of Legionella threats

Dr Richard Bentham, associate director at Built Water Solutions – a specialist water treatment company in Clarendon, South Australia, and Associate Professor, Public Health Microbiology, at the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University in Adelaide, Muhammad Atif Nisar, a Postgraduate Research Student, and Dr Harriett Whiley, senior lecturer, Environmental Health, at the same educational establishment, discuss addressing the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of factors that can lead to Legionella colonisation and spread.

Water systems are an integral part of any large building. They are a critical component of a healthcare facility. Safe water is a given for operation of your facility. Nevertheless, statistics from across the globe show Legionella colonisation in the majority of healthcare facilities. The data also shows cases of disease associated with hot, warm, and cold water supplies. The past two years have seen a flurry of activity in healthcare in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Necessarily this has meant prioritising ‘essential services’, and naturally this has resulted in diverting attention from other services, and in some cases redundancies. The ‘tidal’ nature of the pandemic impacts on healthcare has meant multiple reopening and recommissioning of services

From a building water system perspective, the situation caused by the pandemic is not new. The issues surrounding water safety have not been changed by the pandemic. It is a magnification of the existing status quo. The three enemies to be tackled are the same, and, unless addressed, will persist when (hopefully) the COVID-19 pandemic is a memory