A Community‐Wide Outbreak of Legionnaires Disease Linked to Industrial Cooling Towers—How Far Can Contaminated Aerosols Spread?

Nguyen, Tran M; Ilèf, D.; Jarraud, Sophie; Rouïl, Laurence; Campese, C; Che, Didier; Haeghebaert, S.; Ganiayre, François; Marcel, Frédéric; Etienne, Jérôme; Desenclos, Jean‐Claude

doi:10.1086/498575

Cited by 281 publications

(238 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

227

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The great majority of the European outbreaks described are related to cooling towers [29][30][31], and also in Italy, the few community outbreaks that occurred were due to this exposure. For this reason, many European countries are implementing new regulations for cooling towers, including their compulsory registration at local and regional level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legionnaires’ disease in Italy: results of the epidemiological surveillance from 2000 to 2011

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legionnaires’ disease in Italy: results of the epidemiological surveillance from 2000 to 2011

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Table 2 provides some examples of the use of both approaches together with each study's choice of annuli distances or average population size of the spatial unit considered. A more sophisticated technique is to retrospectively use atmospheric dispersion modelling combined with meteorological data to test whether a potential release location could have resulted in exposure to the pathogen that is consistent with the observed spatial pattern of cases [59,65]. Atmospheric dispersion modelling has similarly been applied in a retrospective manner to the Sverdlovsk inhalational anthrax outbreak to help identify the time and location of the release of the causative pathogen [69].…”

Section: Spatio-temporal Models 41 Retrospective and Prospective Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of back-calculation techniques and their potential to inform mitigation strategies with application to non-transmissible acute infectious diseases

Egan

Hall

2015

J. R. Soc. Interface.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Back-calculation is a process whereby generally unobservable features of an event leading to a disease outbreak can be inferred either in real-time or shortly after the end of the outbreak. These features might include the time when persons were exposed and the source of the outbreak. Such inferences are important as they can help to guide the targeting of mitigation strategies and to evaluate the potential effectiveness of such strategies. This article reviews the process of back-calculation with a particular emphasis on more recent applications concerning deliberate and naturally occurring aerosolized releases. The techniques can be broadly split into two themes: the simpler temporal models and the more sophisticated spatio-temporal models. The former require input data in the form of cases' symptom onset times, whereas the latter require additional spatial information such as the cases' home and work locations. A key aspect in the back-calculation process is the incubation period distribution, which forms the initial topic for consideration. Links between atmospheric dispersion modelling, within-host dynamics and backcalculation are outlined in detail. An example of how back-calculation can inform mitigation strategies completes the review by providing improved estimates of the duration of antibiotic prophylaxis that would be required in the response to an inhalational anthrax outbreak.

show abstract

“…The early symptoms of Legionnaires' disease can include an influenza-like illness with muscle aches, tiredness, headaches, dry cough and fever [1,2]. The fatality rate of Legionnaires' disease can vary from 1% to 17% of cases in the general population and may be higher in the risk groups [5][6][7][8][9]. The right skewed incubation period distribution has a median of six days but can range between two and 19 days [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The application of geographic information systems and spatial data during Legionnaires’ disease outbreak responses

Bull¹,

Hall²,

Robesyn

2012

Eurosurveillance

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A literature review was conducted to highlight the application and potential benefit of using geographic information systems (GIS) during Legionnaires' disease outbreak investigations. Relatively few published sources were identified, however, certain types of data were found to be important in facilitating the use of GIS, namely: patient data, locations of potential sources (e.g. cooling towers), demographic data relating to the local population and meteorological data. These data were then analysed to gain a better understanding of the spatial relationships between cases and their environment, the cases' proximity to potential outbreak sources, and the modelled dispersion of contaminated aerosols. The use of GIS in an outbreak is not a replacement for traditional outbreak investigation techniques, but it can be a valuable supplement to a response.

show abstract

A Community‐Wide Outbreak of Legionnaires Disease Linked to Industrial Cooling Towers—How Far Can Contaminated Aerosols Spread?

Cited by 281 publications

References 28 publications

Legionnaires’ disease in Italy: results of the epidemiological surveillance from 2000 to 2011

Legionnaires’ disease in Italy: results of the epidemiological surveillance from 2000 to 2011

A review of back-calculation techniques and their potential to inform mitigation strategies with application to non-transmissible acute infectious diseases

The application of geographic information systems and spatial data during Legionnaires’ disease outbreak responses

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About