Study finds hospitals should test water systems for bacteria
Hospital Safety Connection, August 24, 2007
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Hospitals should regularly test their water systems for bacteria that cause Legionella, better known as Legionnaires' disease, according to a new study led by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
The 20-hospital study showed that monitoring water systems can help predict the risk of hospital-acquired Legionnaires' disease, reported The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
"Only those hospitals that had high levels of Legionella bacteria in their water systems had patients who contracted Legionnaires' disease," said Victor Yu, MD, senior author of the study, published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
Proactive monitoring of the water supply alerted physicians to the hidden risk of the disease for their patients, according to the study.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that hospitals monitor patients for pneumonia before testing water systems for Legionella.
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