Air-conditioner cooling towers as complex reservoirs and continuous source of Legionella pneumophila infection evidenced by a genomic analysis study in 2017, Switzerland.

ABSTRACT: IntroductionWater supply and air-conditioner cooling towers (ACCT) are potential sources of Legionella pneumophila infection in people. During outbreaks, traditional typing methods cannot sufficiently segregate L. pneumophila strains to reliably trace back transmissions to these artificial water systems. Moreover, because multiple L. pneumophila strains may be present within these systems, methods to adequately distinguish strains are needed. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) and core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST), with their higher resolution are helpful in this respect. In summer 2017, the health administration of the city of Basel detected an increase of L. pneumophila infections compared with previous months, signalling an outbreak.AimWe aimed to id

SUBMITTER: Wuthrich D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6351994 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature