Risk assessment and disease burden of legionella presence in cooling towers of Iran's central hospitals.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
; 28(46): 65945-65951, 2021 Dec.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34327641
ABSTRACT
Regular monitoring and measurement of Legionella in tower water and preventive measures against contamination are particularly important in hospitals. This study aimed at risk assessment and disease burden because of legionella presence in cooling towers of Iran's central hospitals. Then its correlation with temperature, pH, turbidity, residual chlorine, and EC was investigated by the Pearson test. The health risk and burden of diseases caused by Legionella exposure were determined using QMRA and DALY models. Statistical analysis and modeling were performed in MATLAB2018. Of the total samples, 30-43% was infected with Legionella. The mean concentrations in hospital A and B were 5-102.5 ± 10 and 5-89.7 ± 0.7 CFU/L, respectively. Among environmental factors, turbidity and pH were the most effective factors in increasing and decreasing Legionella concentration, respectively. According to the QMRA model, the risks of Legionella infections and annual mortality in both hospitals were 0.2-0.3, 0-0.19, 2-2.9 × 10-5, and 0-0.7 × 10-5, respectively, which was higher than the acceptable risk range for Legionella (10-4-10-7). However, the trend of its change was negatively correlated with time (RB = - 0.77). According to the results, the concentration of Legionella and the exposure risk in both hospitals were higher than the permissible range, which is necessary to decrease to 0.1 current concentrations.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Legionella
/
Legionella pneumophila
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
País/Região como assunto:
Asia
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article