First report of Legionella pneumophila in car cabin air filters. Are these a potential exposure pathway for professional drivers?

Autor: Alexandropoulou IG; From the Regional Public Health Laboratory (East Macedonia-Thrace), Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention., Konstantinidis TG, Parasidis TA, Nikolaidis C, Panopoulou M, Constantinidis TC
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Scandinavian journal of infectious diseases [Scand J Infect Dis] 2013 Dec; Vol. 45 (12), pp. 948-52. Date of Electronic Publication: 2013 Oct 07.
DOI: 10.3109/00365548.2013.840917
Abstrakt: Recent findings have identified professional drivers as being at an increased risk of Legionnaires' disease. Our hypothesis was that used car cabin air filters represent a reservoir of Legionella bacteria, and thus a potential pathway for contamination. We analysed used cabin air filters from various types of car. The filters were analysed by culture and by molecular methods. Our findings indicated that almost a third of air filters were colonized with Legionella pneumophila. Here, we present the first finding of Legionella spp. in used car cabin air filters. Further investigations are needed in order to confirm this exposure pathway. The presence of Legionella bacteria in used cabin air filters may have been an unknown source of infection until now.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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