Legionnaires bug can travel miles The bacteria responsible for
causing legionnaires disease can spread through the air up to 6
kilometres from its source, French researchers report.
Legionella pneumophila likes to live in hot water, such as in
industrial cooling towers or the water systems of large
buildings where it can then cause pneumonia-like infections. Now
a new study suggests that a wider area may be at risk. Past
studies found airborne legionella spread only a few hundred
metres, says lead author Dr Tran Minh Nhu Nguyen, currently at
the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki. If other
investigators confirm the new findings, he says "a number of
regulations and guidelines related to this environmental health
risk should be revised accordingly". In the Journal of
Infectious Diseases, Nguyen and his team report on their
investigation of a 2004 outbreak of legionnaires disease that
occurred in Pas-de-Calais in northern France. They identify a
contaminated cooling tower at a petrochemical plant as t