Better water management could have prevented the majority of the country's major Legionnaires' disease outbreaks in the last 15 years, according to the CDC. Now, the agency has released a toolkit to help organizations improve water system management.
Legionnaires' disease is caused by Legionella, a bacterium that grows best in building water systems that aren't well-kept. People get the pneumonia-like illness by breathing in aerosolized water droplets that contain the bacteria. Most people will recover fully from Legionnaires' disease, but roughly 1 in 10 will die.
The CDC investigated 27 building-associated Legionnaires' disease outbreaks, and found the most common sources of building-associated Legionnaires' disease outbreaks were:
- Drinkable water, or water used for showering (56 percent)
- Cooling towers (22 percent)
- Hot tubs (7 percent)
- Industrial equipment (4 percent)
- Decorative fountain/water feature (4 percent)
To help curb these potentially deadly outbreaks, the CDC is now offering a new toolkit, titled "Developing a Water Management Program to Reduce Legionella Growth and Spread in Buildings: A Practical Guide to Implementing Industry Standards."
Access the toolkit for free here.