Third Legionnaires disease outbreak in Sydney

A third outbreak of Legionnaires disease has been identified in Sydney. (Full story)

Bizarrely, the head of a local water company is reported as saying that the source of the Legionella was not local cooling towers, but the Sydney mains water supply. While this may be ponderously correct in the greater scheme of things – Legionella is fairly universal in environmental water – the bug only becomes a problem when is is introduced to a managed water system where if the water not managed properly the bug can proliferate and then be spread. Cooling towers are a managed water system which provide an excellent environment for proliferation and dispersal, making them very much a potential source of the bug. More to the point the cooling tower is the point of control. So why don’t they get on with testing and cleaning all potential sources, and then testing again to make sure the problem has been dealt with?