Abstract
Background: The legionellaceae family has a single genus legionella which is a major cause of respiratory disease in human. These agents are water – born organisms with a wide distribution in natural and artificial environmental water supplies. Transmission to human may occur through contaminated aerosols. Objective: This study was performed to isolate and identify determine the legionnaire’s disease agents from the medical equipments and environmental water sources. Methods: 210 samples were collected from hospitals and other aquatic sources in Ahwaz. The samples were examined for legionella bacteriology. Findings: The results indicated that the legionella were present in 14 out of 210 samples. Using biochemical tests, 9 serogroups of legionella species were recognized as pneumophila and the remaining 5 serogroups were reported as other legionella species. Conclusion: It seems that legionellas exist at the location of the sampling areas. Recognition of different serogroups of these bacteria needs more epidemiological studies.
Keywords
Legionella Legionella pneumophila Pneumonia Water microbiology Isolation
Copyright
© 2024, Journal of Inflammatory Diseases. This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which allows for the copying and redistribution of the material only for noncommercial purposes, provided that the original work is properly cited.