Reducing the risk of Legionella is hard-wired in healthcare facilities, but recently attention has turned to another waterborne pathogen – Pseudomonas aeruginosa. According to Public Health England,1 in the year to March 2021, 39% of P. aeruginosa cases originated in healthcare, exacerbated by the increase in hospital admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new BSI code of practice, BS 8580-2:2022,2 provides a guide to assessing the risks posed by P. aeruginosa in healthcare settings. Carole Armstrong, Marketing manager at Delabie, looks at the implications for design and specification when managing these risks.
Whether for a new-build or when refurbishing existing premises, responsibility for managing the risk of infection by P. aeruginosa lies not only with the duty-holder or responsible person, but also with the architects, design engineers, manufacturers, installers, and operational teams. Their role is to ensure that – at every stage, from brief to handover and operation – the risk is removed or reduced as far as possible. P. aeruginosa is a naturally occurring pathogen that thrives in damp conditions, requiring very few nutrients, a source of oxygen, and ambient temperatures (4-42˚C) to proliferate. Its ideal habitat is the outlet and its associated pipework. The first challenge for healthcare facilities is that the incoming water is not sterile, and it is not possible or practical to prevent all waterborne opportunistic pathogens entering the system. The solution, therefore, is to manage the water distribution system to prevent proliferation and minimise contamination.
Filtering out the microbes
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