Prevalence of Legionella spp. in the water distribution systems of Northern Greece

Konstantinos Papageorgiou; Efstathios Chronis; Andreas Tzouanopoulos; Vasileios Steris; Dimitrios Koutsopoulos; Ioannis Tzavaras; Konstantinos Paraskevopoulos; Symeon Karolidis

doi:10.29333/ejeph/13496

Prevalence of Legionella spp. in the water distribution systems of Northern Greece

Konstantinos Papageorgiou ¹ ^* , Efstathios Chronis ¹ , Andreas Tzouanopoulos ¹ , Vasileios Steris ¹ , Dimitrios Koutsopoulos ¹ , Ioannis Tzavaras ¹ , Konstantinos Paraskevopoulos ¹ , Symeon Karolidis ¹

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¹ C’ Military Veterinary Hospital, Thermi, Thessaloniki, GREECE^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Legionella spp. are the etiological agent of legionnaire’s disease, a severe respiratory disease, which affects mostly the vulnerable groups of the population. In the present study, we investigated the presence of Legionella according to ISO 11731:2017 in water samples, collected from five regions of Northern Greece. The results showed that 64 (8.9%) out of the 595 collected samples were positive for Legionella. Furthermore, 23 (35.9%) and 14 (21.9%) out of the 64 isolated Legionella strains were confirmed as L. pneumophila serogroup 1 and L. pneumophila serogroup 2-15, respectively, while the remaining 27 (42.2%) isolates were characterized as non-pneumophila Legionella spp. The findings of this study offer proof that Legionella remains a significant public health concern. They will aid in enhancing our comprehension of Legionella’s epidemiology in Greece and assist in implementing efficient control measures to minimize its occurrence in water meant for human consumption.

Keywords

public health
legionella
water
epidemiology

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EUR J ENV PUBLIC HLT, Volume 7, Issue 4, 2023, Article No: em0147

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/13496

Publication date: 23 Jul 2023

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How to cite this article

Vancouver

Papageorgiou K, Chronis E, Tzouanopoulos A, Steris V, Koutsopoulos D, Tzavaras I, et al. Prevalence of Legionella spp. in the water distribution systems of Northern Greece. EUR J ENV PUBLIC HLT. 2023;7(4):em0147. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/13496

APA

Papageorgiou, K., Chronis, E., Tzouanopoulos, A., Steris, V., Koutsopoulos, D., Tzavaras, I., Paraskevopoulos, K., & Karolidis, S. (2023). Prevalence of Legionella spp. in the water distribution systems of Northern Greece. European Journal of Environment and Public Health, 7(4), em0147. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/13496

AMA

Papageorgiou K, Chronis E, Tzouanopoulos A, et al. Prevalence of Legionella spp. in the water distribution systems of Northern Greece. EUR J ENV PUBLIC HLT. 2023;7(4), em0147. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/13496

Chicago

Papageorgiou, Konstantinos, Efstathios Chronis, Andreas Tzouanopoulos, Vasileios Steris, Dimitrios Koutsopoulos, Ioannis Tzavaras, Konstantinos Paraskevopoulos, and Symeon Karolidis. "Prevalence of Legionella spp. in the water distribution systems of Northern Greece". European Journal of Environment and Public Health 2023 7 no. 4 (2023): em0147. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/13496

Harvard

Papageorgiou, K., Chronis, E., Tzouanopoulos, A., Steris, V., Koutsopoulos, D., Tzavaras, I., . . . Karolidis, S. (2023). Prevalence of Legionella spp. in the water distribution systems of Northern Greece. European Journal of Environment and Public Health, 7(4), em0147. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/13496

MLA

Papageorgiou, Konstantinos et al. "Prevalence of Legionella spp. in the water distribution systems of Northern Greece". European Journal of Environment and Public Health, vol. 7, no. 4, 2023, em0147. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/13496