What is Legionella?
Legionnaires' disease is an uncommon form of pneumonia which can be severe, often lethal. It's caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila found in both potable and nonpotable water systems. Legionnaires’ disease, or Legionellosis, is a severe infection caused by Legionella species, primarily L. pneumophila. The disease typically presents as pneumonia and symptoms may include a high fever, chills, cough, muscle aches, headaches, and diarrhea.
How is Legionella contracted?
The most popular theory is that the organism is aerosolized in water and people inhale the droplets containing Legionella. However, new evidence suggests that another way of contracting Legionella is more common. "Aspiration" is the most common way that bacteria enter into the lungs to cause pneumonia. Aspiration means choking such that secretions in the mouth get past the choking reflexes and instead of going into the esophagus and stomach, mistakenly, enter the lung. The protective mechanisms to prevent aspiration is defective in patients who smoke or have lung disease. Aspiration now appears to be the most common mode of transmission.
What is the school doing?
To regulate and control the risk from exposure to legionella bacteria two regulations were published under the Public Health Act, namely the Control of Legionella Regulations, 2006 (L.N.5 of 2006) and the Registration of Cooling Towers and Evaporative Condensers Regulations, 2006 (L.N. 6 of 2006). The school has started using the services of a private company to test and monitor our water systems as per the above regulations. In addition to that, the school also ensures the cleaning of water and flushing tanks, the periodic flushing of unused water systems and the monitoring of free chlorine levels in cold water systems and temperature levels in hot water systems.