Journal of Public Health

, Volume 20, Issue 4, pp 425–430 | Cite as

Cooling Towers contribute to the high seroprevalence of Legionella pneumophila antibody among hotel workers

  • Hong Sun
  • Lian Zhou
  • Xiuzhen Zhang
  • Qian Bian
  • Xiaodong Chen
  • Dongyue Wang
  • Fan Liu
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:
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Abstract

Objectives

Regular disinfection work of the cooling towers (CTs) were carried out according to schedule, nevertheless 89.6% of the CTs were still found to be colonized by Legionella pneumophila in our survey in Changzhou city, China. The aim of the study was to observe the effect of L. pneumophila on workers exposed to contaminated cooling towers (CT).

Methods

A total of 364 subjects were randomly selected for the serum testing and the questionnaire survey. They were either from the hotel with contaminated CTs or without CTs (used as control). heir serum anti-L. pneumophila antibodies were tested using commercial IFA kits.

Results

The results showed that the prevalence of anti-L. pneumophila group 1 antibodies in the exposed population was significantly higher than control subjects (OR = 2.845, P = 0.019). The possible confounding factors were analyzed. Questionnaires results analysis found that the frequency of flu-like symptoms in the exposed group was also significantly higher; and the indoor air quality was related to the serum anti-L. pneumophila group 1.

Conclusions

The L. pneumophila contaminated CTs contribute to the high seroprevalence of anti-L. pneumophila antibodies; tap water and shower water are also possible contamination resources.

Keywords

Legionella contamination Cooling tower Anti-Legionella pneumophila antibodies Seroprevalence Legionellosis 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Professor Stephen Ambu from International Medical University in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia for the revision of English language text. We would also like to thank Dr. Tan Lifeng and his colleagues from Changzhou CDC for collecting the biosamples. This project was supported by 2010 National health public welfare Research special items (No.201002001), NSFC (NO.30901222) and Jiangsu Provincial Science & Technology Funds NO. BK2009433.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  • Hong Sun
    • 1
    • 2
  • Lian Zhou
    • 1
  • Xiuzhen Zhang
    • 1
  • Qian Bian
    • 1
  • Xiaodong Chen
    • 1
  • Dongyue Wang
    • 2
  • Fan Liu
    • 3
  1. 1.Jiangsu Provincial Centre for Disease Prevention and ControlNanjingChina
  2. 2.Changshu Centre for Disease Prevention and ControlSuzhouChina
  3. 3.Chinese Centre for Disease Prevention and ControlBeijingChina

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