Artificial Intelligence in Public Health Prevention of Legionelosis in Drinking Water Systems

Abstract

Good quality water supplies and safe sanitation in urban areas are a big challenge for governments throughout the world. Providing adequate water quality is a basic requirement for our lives. The colony forming units of the bacterium Legionella pneumophila in potable water represent a big problem which cannot be overlooked for health protection reasons. We analysed several methods to program a virtual hot water tank with AI (artificial intelligence) tools including neuro-fuzzy systems as a precaution against legionelosis. The main goal of this paper is to present research which simulates the temperature profile in the water tank. This research presents a tool for a water management system to simulate conditions which are able to prevent legionelosis outbreaks in a water system. The challenge is to create a virtual water tank simulator including the water environment which can simulate a situation which is common in building water distribution systems. The key feature of the presented system is its adaptation to any hot water tank. While respecting the basic parameters of hot water, a water supplier and building maintainer are required to ensure the predefined quality and water temperature at each sampling site and avoid the growth of Legionella. The presented system is one small contribution how to overcome a situation when legionelosis could find good conditions to spread and jeopardize human lives.

Hot water tanks from the point of view of temperature and energy confrontation

“…By using modern simulations, it is possible to point out in advance the possible places of occurrence of this bacterium in the storage tanks. Generally speaking, Legionella pneumophila bacteria need a suitable temperature in the range of 20 ° C -50 ° C for their reproduction, and a suitable nutrient substrate such as biofilms, sediments and stagnant water [19,20,21,22,23].…”

“…Our previous investigation in past years was aimed at the Legionella present in hot water tanks in residential buildings. Legionella contamination was represented by the collection of more than 50 water samples from private homes, and a boiler houses in Kosice, a representative city in Eastern Slovakia [21]. Selection was made on the basis of the water distribution systems inside the town and buildings and heater types in each area.…”

Public Health and Epidemiology Informatics: Recent Research and Trends in the United States

“…Even less "traditional," for the Essential Service Diagnose & Investigate, Sinčak and colleagues used a "neuro-fuzzy" approach (combination of neural network and fuzzy/approximate reasoning) to simulate water systems and assess Legionnella risk in specific buildings [57]. Another study used wearable monitors, usually part of the "quantified self " movement, for infectious disease modeling [58].…”

What’s Past is Prologue: A Scoping Review of Recent Public and Global Health Informatics Literature

“…While the threat of a large-scale epidemic has not diminished in recent years, as evidenced in 2014 by MERS [133,134] and Ebola [135], the scope of PHI has broadened to support the full range of functions performed by governmental public health authorities. As evidenced in this review, PHI today contributes not only to disease detection [15,136] but also to the delivery of public health care services [137][138][139], the measurement of population health indicators within and across jurisdictions [21,140], investigating environmental hazards [141], and prevention of disease [142][143][144].…”