Rapid Identification of a Cooling Tower-Associated Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak Supported by Polymerase Chain Reaction Testing of Environmental Samples, New York City, 2014–2015

Benowitz, Isaac; Fitzhenry, Robert; Boyd, Christopher; Dickinson, Michelle; Levy, Michael; Lin, Ying; Nazarian, Elizabeth; Ostrowsky, Belinda; Passaretti, Teresa; Rakeman, Jennifer; Saylors, Amy; Shamoonian, Elena; Smith, Terry-Ann; Balter, Sharon

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Rapid Identification of a Cooling Tower-Associated Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak Supported by Polymerase Chain Reaction Testing of Environmental Samples, New York City, 2014–2015

Supporting Files

Apr 2018
By Benowitz, Isaac ; Fitzhenry, Robert ; Boyd, Christopher ; ...

Details

Alternative Title:

J Environ Health
Personal Author:

Benowitz, Isaac ; Fitzhenry, Robert ; Boyd, Christopher ; Dickinson, Michelle ; Levy, Michael ; Lin, Ying ; Nazarian, Elizabeth ; Ostrowsky, Belinda ; Passaretti, Teresa ; Rakeman, Jennifer ; Saylors, Amy ; Shamoonian, Elena ; Smith, Terry-Ann ; Balter, Sharon
Description:

We investigated an outbreak of eight Legionnaires' disease cases among persons living in an urban residential community of 60,000 people. Possible environmental sources included two active cooling towers (air-conditioning units for large buildings) <1 km from patient residences, a market misting system, a community-wide water system used for heating and cooling, and potable water. To support a timely public health response, we used real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to identify | DNA in environmental samples within hours of specimen collection. We detected | serogroup 1 DNA only at a power plant cooling tower, supporting the decision to order remediation before culture results were available. An isolate from a power plant cooling tower sample was indistinguishable from a patient isolate by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, suggesting the cooling tower was the outbreak source. PCR results were available <1 day after sample collection, and culture results were available as early as 5 days after plating. PCR is a valuable tool for identifying | DNA in environmental samples in outbreak settings.
Subjects:

Article
Source:

J Environ Health. 80(8):8-12.
Pubmed ID:

29780175
Pubmed Central ID:

PMC5956537
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

U50 CK000407/CK/NCEZID CDC HHS/United States
Volume:

80
Issue:

8
Collection(s):

CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:52d7d6d775bc2fcf00f9149350b2bf9df8cdf2ec5ddec48c49abeaa576f829ad
Download URL:

https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/54366/cdc_54366_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 84.34 KB ]

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