[Occurrence of Legionella bacteria in a variety of environmental waters--from April, 1996 to November, 2000].
The present paper deals with the occurrence of Legionella bacteria in a variety of man-made environmental waters, including whirlpool bathes, cooling towers and others, from April 1996 to November 2000 in the eastern part of Japan around Tokyo area. A total of 2,895 water samples were examined for the possible occurrence of Legionella, and 904 (31%) were demonstrated to be positive. Among the various water sources, Legionella were frequently detected both in whirlpool bathes and in cooling towers, of which detection rates were 48% and 46%, respectively. More precisely, occurrence of Legionella was higher in private-use whirlpool bathes than those for public-use; namely, the positive rate was 71% in bathes accommodated in private houses, 63% in company's club houses, 62% in company dormitories for employees, and 51% in old-people's homes. Occurrence of Legionella, on the other hand, was less common (< or = 30%) in bathes for public-use such as those installed in hotels and in hot spring facilities. Typing of L. pneumophila serogroups revealed that SG5 (34%) was dominant in whirlpool bath waters followed by SG3 (22%), whereas SG1 (32%) was dominantly found in cooling tower waters.
Suzuki
Atsuko
A
Tokyo Health Service Association, Japan.
Ichinose
Masayuki
M
Matsue
Takayuki
T
Amano
Yuji
Y
Terayama
Takeshi
T
Izumiyama
Shinji
S
Endo
Takuro
T
D006875:Hydrotherapy; D016952:Legionella pneumophila / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014041:Tokyo; D014871:Water Microbiology