I am on the Council in East North Hamptonshire. I’ve been asked to provide an update on the subject of Legionella risk and have visited your web site. I’m following up on the statement that air conditioners are not a source for Legionnaires’ disease.
Preliminary investigations into the recent Barrow-in-Furness case contradict this. Public Health officials now believe there was a serious flaw in an air conditioning plant thought to be at the center of the outbreak. These health officials believe that for nearly a month, the air vent had been emitting steam containing bacterium into the alleyway. As you can see, I am now confused!
Can you shed some light on the research that confirms the statement that “air conditioners are not a source for Legionnaires’ disease”, or is there a possibility of “language confusion”?
Please download our article in Lancet Infectious Diseases June 2002 for the evidence which is considerable.
The first case of the elderly individual in this outbreak is an important clue. We were informed that he was never near the air conditioner in question. And, the public health authorities never even mentioned that the drinking water in the nursing home should be tested. The first place US CDC would have looked would not be the air conditioning, but the drinking water. In fact, there is not even a single credible case of Legionnaires’ disease clearly linked to an air conditioner in the scientific literature.