Lasalle sees Legionnaires’ outbreak
There’s been an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Lasalle. This illness isn’t passed between people, but the pathogen tends to grow in large neglected ventilation systems, from where the bacteria infect people in the vicinity. The solution is to do a kind of John Snow map to zero in on where the problem originates, clean it up, and treat the sick people with antibiotics.
I hope there are fines for building owners that neglect maintenance so much that their building makes people sick.
Blork 09:57 on 2020-09-25 Permalink
There’s been some concern that when (if?) office buildings re-open it could lead to a spike in Legionnaires diseases because all those toilets, sinks, showers, etc. that have been sitting dormant for months gathering bacteria in their pipes will suddenly start flushing and sending the microbes into the air in those buildings’ bathrooms.
Andrew 12:40 on 2020-09-25 Permalink
After the Quebec City outbreak in 2012, the RBQ implemented a registry of all cooling towers in the province with mandatory maintenance standards and a test every month for Legionella bacteria. So there is a law on the books if that’s the source.
Actually, come to think of it wearing a mask would probably be effective protection. It’s a very common bacteria in natural water sources, it’s only dangerous if you inhale an aerosolized droplet into your lungs.
Ephraim 21:40 on 2020-09-25 Permalink
Standing water at average temperature. Cold water under 20c usually prohibit it’s growth and water above 60c kills it quickly. It’s one of the reasons why we can’t easily have instant hot water in Quebec. The water from the pipes is too cold to heat quickly with electricity, it needs to be done with gas and have an outside gas. The solution would be to have tanks with higher temperature (ie room temperature) water, but that would allow the growth of Legionella. And the heating would be too quick to allow the half lives to kill it at high temperature. So… water tanks for electric hot water 🙂