A meta-analysis of Legionella pneumophila contamination in hospital water systems

Zisi Fang; Xiaocong Zhou; Hui Liao; Hong Xu

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2023.04.002

A meta-analysis of Legionella pneumophila contamination in hospital water systems

Am J Infect Control. 2023 Apr 11:S0196-6553(23)00162-1. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2023.04.002. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zisi Fang¹, Xiaocong Zhou¹, Hui Liao¹, Hong Xu²

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
² Department of Environmental Health, Hangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Electronic address: xuhong-123456@hotmail.com.

PMID: 37054892
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2023.04.002

Abstract

Background: Legionella pneumophila is a common cause of community-acquired pneumonia. We aimed to determine the pooled rates of L pneumophila contamination in the water environment of the hospital.

Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, WangFang and Science Direct, The Cochrane Library, and Science Finder, for relevant studies published until December 2022. Stata 16.0 software was used to determine pooled contamination rates, publication bias, and subgroup analysis.

Results: Forty-eight eligible articles with a total of 23,640 samples of water were evaluated, and the prevalence of L pneumophila was 41.6%. The results of the subgroup analysis showed that the pollution rate of L pneumophila in hot water (47.6%) was higher than that in other water bodies. The rates of L pneumophila contamination were higher in developed countries (45.2%), culture methods (42.3%), published between 1985 and 2015 (42.9%), and studies with a sample size of less than 100 (53.0%).

Conclusions: L pneumophila contamination in medical institutions is still very serious and should be paid attention to, especially in developed countries and hot water tanks.

Keywords: Environmental surveillance; Infection control.

Publication types

Review