Although only around 400 cases are reported annually to the UK’s Health Protection Agency (HPA), climate change, and thus warmer cold water supplies entering hospitals, the bacterium’s apparent ability to mutate, and the considerable challenge of properly monitoring, and successfully identifying and addressing, all potential infection sources on a large hospital estate mean an increasing risk of hospital patients acquiring the potentially deadly waterborne infection, Legionnaires’ disease.
This was the warning from a top UK microbiologist at a recent “waterborne infection masterclass” organised by specialist water filtration product supplier Pall Medical in Antwerp. Jonathan Baillie reports.
Speaking at the one-day seminar, attended by microbiologists, estates and facilities, and medical and clinical personnel, Dr Tom Makin, who is directorate manager at the Department of Medical Microbiology at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, gave a comprehensive overview of the key risk factors behind hospital Legionella outbreaks, and outlined some of the steps available to minimise such risks. Actively involved in diagnostic medical microbiology for over 30 years, Dr Makin is well-known for his extensive research on the environmental aspects of Legionnnaires’ disease, has assessed the effectiveness of a variety of measures in controlling Legionella bacteria in water systems, and presented numerous papers on the topic. A seasoned lecturer on waterborne infection, he was a member of the working group that produced the technical guidance in the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Approved Code of Practice (L8) on the Control of Bacteria in Water Systems and, during the past 20 years, has acquired considerable practical experience in biocides, and in the epidemiology, ecology, and control of the Legionella bacterium and other “clinically significant” microorganisms in water systems. An advisor to the Department of Health through NHS Estates, Dr Makin also participated in the production of the DH Healthcare Technical Memorandum HTM 2040 on Legionella in healthcare premises, was a co-author of the current version of this guidance, HTM 04- 01, and is on the working party currently updating it. He has also been an expert witness at several high profile cases involving outbreaks, including the famous incident in 2002 at the Barrow-in-Furness Arts and Leisure Centre in Cumbria.
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