Impact of building closures during the COVID-19 pandemic on Legionella infection risks

Jiayu Liang; Clifford S Swanson; Liang Wang; Qiang He

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2021.09.008

Impact of building closures during the COVID-19 pandemic on Legionella infection risks

Am J Infect Control. 2021 Dec;49(12):1564-1566. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2021.09.008. Epub 2021 Sep 17.

Authors

Jiayu Liang¹, Clifford S Swanson², Liang Wang³, Qiang He⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China.
² Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
³ School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China. Electronic address: wangliang_2004wl@163.com.
⁴ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA. Electronic address: qianghe@utk.edu.

Abstract

Prolonged building closures are prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in extreme stagnation in building water systems. High-throughput sequencing analysis revealed significantly increased presence of Legionella due to extreme water stagnation, highlighting elevated exposure risks to Legionella from building water systems during re-opening of previously closed buildings.

Keywords: Drinking water; Premise plumbing; Stagnation.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Drinking Water*
Humans
Legionella*
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2
Water Microbiology
Water Supply

Substances

Drinking Water