Copper-silver ionization: Cautious optimism for Legionella disinfection and implications for environmental culturing

摘要

Legionnaires' disease is now a well-established nosocomial problem. Although a few early reports suggested that cooling towers were reservoirs for the organism that causes the disease, virtually all reports since 1982 have shown that water distribution systems are the major reservoirs for the organisms that cause legionnaires' disease when it is acquired in the hospital. Each of the two most common disinfection measures used for legionella, "superheat and flush" and hyperchlorination, has some disadvantages.