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Abstract

In September 2018 in Brescia province, northern Italy, an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease (LD) caused by serogroup 2 () occurred. The 33 cases (two fatal) resided in seven municipalities along the Chiese river. All cases were negative by urinary antigen test (UAT) and most were diagnosed by real-time PCR and serology. In only three cases, respiratory sample cultures were positive, and was identified and typed as sequence type (ST)1455. In another three cases, nested sequence-based typing was directly applied to respiratory samples, which provided allelic profiles highly similar to ST1455. An environmental investigation was undertaken immediately and water samples were collected from private homes, municipal water systems, cooling towers and the river. Overall, 533 environmental water samples were analysed and 34 were positive for . Of these, only three samples, all collected from the Chiese river, were ST1455. If and how the river water could have been aerosolised causing the LD cases remains unexplained. This outbreak, the first to our knowledge caused by , highlights the limits of UAT for LD diagnosis, underlining the importance of adopting multiple tests to ensure that serogroups other than serogroup 1, as well as other species, are identified.

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2021-06-24
2024-04-26
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.25.2001961
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A community-acquired Legionnaires’ disease outbreak caused by Legionella pneumophila serogroup 2: an uncommon event, Italy, August to October 2018
<p class="citation"> <span>Citation style for this article:</span> <span class="meta-value authors"> <a href="/search?value1=Maria+Scaturro&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Scaturro Maria</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Maria+Cristina+Rota&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Rota Maria Cristina</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Maria+Grazia+Caporali&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Caporali Maria Grazia</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Antonietta+Girolamo&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Girolamo Antonietta</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Michele+Magoni&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Magoni Michele</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Daria+Barberis&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Barberis Daria</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Chiara+Romano&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Romano Chiara</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Danilo+Cereda&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Cereda Danilo</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Maria+Gramegna&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Gramegna Maria</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Antonio+Piro&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Piro Antonio</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Silvia+Corbellini&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Corbellini Silvia</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Cinzia+Giagulli&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Giagulli Cinzia</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Giovanni+Rezza&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Rezza Giovanni</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Arnaldo+Caruso&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Caruso Arnaldo</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Maria+Luisa+Ricci&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Ricci Maria Luisa</a></span>. A community-acquired Legionnaires’ disease outbreak caused by Legionella pneumophila serogroup 2: an uncommon event, Italy, August to October 2018. <a href="/content/ecdc">Euro Surveill.</a> 2021;26(25):pii=2001961. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.25.2001961" title="doi link" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.25.2001961</a> <span class="ES_Article_citation"> <span class="generated">Received</span>: 16 Nov 2020;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="generated">Accepted</span>: 12 Apr 2021 </span> </p>
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