Legionnaires Outbreak !

As Sydney's temperature reaches new heights due to global warming the necessity of air conditioning is bringing a new threat of death to city workers.  The hotter the climate brings a sharp increase in the outbreak of Legionnaires disease which is directly linked to the contamination of air conditioning cooling towers on city buildings.

Once the Legionnaires bacteria establishes a thresh hold in a cooling tower because of shoddy maintenance it breeds rapidly and tiny particles float free to descend to the streets below.   The victims are ordinary men and women who either visit the city or who are regular workers in those contaminated office blocks.

This year Sydney had outbreaks in March and May. Fifteen people required hospital treatment - and one died.  For the first time the Health authorities used genome sequencing to establish that the same strain was present in all victims and by questioning movements were able to pin down the source as being between Clarence and York street in the central city.

There are twelve thousand registered cooling towers in the 12.3 kilometre inner city radius - and probably a lot more that have been installed without notification.  Tests are underway, using satellite imaging to identify those not on the register and bring them under the inspection regime.

Safety from Legionnaires is a simple matter of regular cleaning maintenance. Unfortunately some building owners are careless and in this age of cost pressures extending the maintenance period seems to be a good way of saving money.   The moment even a hint that there may be a Legionnaires outbreak appears in the media guilty property managers rush to get their cooling towers cleaned before the inspectors arrive.   This makes it very difficult to establish the precise source of the infection.

The penalties for having an infected cooling tower run to $ 55,000 or twelve months jail for an individual, or a $ 275,000 fine for a corporation.   We were lucky in that these two recent outbreaks claimed just fifteen victims. In other parts of the world similar outbreaks have been numbered in vast quantities of people - with a high death toll.

Tracking down the possible source of a Legionnaires outbreak is not easy.  When a city is hit with food poisoning we immediately ask the victims what they have eaten - and from where ?   With Legionnaires the contamination is blowing in the wind and it may be contracted a huge distance from the actual source.   It takes time to reconcile information and find a common factor.

Here we are on the cusp of another summer and there is every indication that global warming will continue.  City offices would be intolerable without air conditioning and it is inevitable that more new buildings will increase the number of cooling towers providing that service.   Each new tower adds to the risk - if it is not meticulously maintained.

Building owners rarely service their own cooling towers.   That work is carried out by contractors with the required skills and it may be necessary to require this industry to notify the health department of which cooling towers are under their care - and certify that each has been regularly maintained.  Unless the cleaning of cooling towers can be brought under control there is the risk of a high level health tragedy !