Water Management

The provision of bottled water for patient consumption and assessment of the microbial risk remains a blind spot for infection prevention teams and water safety groups.  Few consider that bottled water could be a source of Pseudomonas aeruginosa or other waterborne pathogens. There are times when bottled water could be safer and a logistically favourable …

Is Bottled Drinking Water Quality Suitable for Patient Consumption? Read More »

The College of Environmental Science and Engineering at Tongii University, Shanghai (Zhao et al, 2022) have completed an important review and analysis of published literature on the presence of fungi in drinking water (Aspergillus, Fusarium, Candida, Cryptococcus andothers). The paucity of easy and reliable analysis methods, lack of regulation and limited control strategies has led …

Fungal Spores in Drinking Water – Aspergillus, Fusarium, Candida, Cryptococcus and others Read More »

Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) are microorganisms which can be found everywhere in our environment, not just in water but in soil, vegetation, aerosols and dust particles.  There are over 170 NTM species identified, although not all are clinically relevant, and this number is still increasing.  The widespread introduction of disinfectants within drinking water treatment processes and …

Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria – a 21st Century Waterborne Pathogen Read More »

New Learning About Legionella With two new Legionella species discovered within the last 12 months it is clear that we continue to learn about this waterborne bacterium.  Two recently published papers, including a multinational study from the innovative and hardworking ESCMID Study Group for Legionella Infections (ESGLI) (Ricci et al., 2022) reveal further important facts. …

Catching Killers Read More »

How well do we really understand the multiple factorial parameters that can influence Legionella, Pseudomonas, non-tuberculous mycobacteria, Stenotrophomonas and other waterborne pathogen survival and growth within our in-premise drinking water systems?  Certainly the design of a system and the different materials in the fluid pathway can have an impact, as can the chemical composition of …

Construction Concerns? Read More »

Patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation (BMT) are profoundly immunosuppressed.  Their susceptibility to even very low concentrations of environmental microorganisms including waterborne bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Legionella spp., non-tuberculous mycobacteria, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia), which would normally offer no threat to healthy or more mildly compromised individuals, becomes critical to manage.  Mucosal surfaces, our semipermeable skin barrier …

Protecting High Risk Patients from Waterborne Infection Read More »

The team from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, have recently published on the functionality of Pseudomonas aeruginosa following exposure to chlorine and UV light disinfection (Chiang et al., 2022) Their report highlights the major limitations in using cell culture methodology to assess waterborne bacteria pathogenic activity, to validate and/or …

Pseudomonas aeruginosa – Hiding in Plain Sight Read More »

Until recently it was a rarity to read about Cupriavidus pauculus – an occasional case study perhaps – it was certainly not a waterborne pathogen at the centre of outbreak investigations like Legionella pneumophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa or non-tuberculous Mycobacteria. However, in 2018 the sad events unfolded from the new build Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, …

Risks at The Water’s Edge Read More »