In article , harryagain
wrote:

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article , "harryagain"
writes:
Total elimination is impossible. Every puddle has it, every drain.

It's found in rain too.

But only dangerous if turned into an aerosol.

Like rain!

Anybody who thinks they can eliminate it is barking mad. It can only
be reduced & it soon breeds up again.

Some years back, a team of Italian scientists showed that low level
exposure generates immunity to it, which is not a great surprise as
that applies to many bacteria in the environment which are potentially
infectious to us, rendering them benign as long as your immune system
is working.

I suspect it will eventually be shown that the flare-ups of legionella
over the last ~40 years are actually due to our attempts to eliminate
our exposure to bacteria, including the design of super-clean plumbing
systems (which perfectly aligns with the start of the legionella
outbreaks), resulting in many people having lost their natural immunity
to something that's probably always been in rainwater.

It has been around for a long time but indentified. The main cause for
infection in the recent past has been the proliferation of mechancical
ventilation systems/AC and particularly cooling where water condenses on
evaporators/humidifiers.

Also water cooling towers.

Catching it from showers is quite rare, the droplets are too large to be
readily inhaled.

Our Council's H&S department banned the use of our theatre's shower unless
we guaranteed to run it twice a week.. Just because there are big drops
doesn;t menathere can't be small ones as well.

It's just a more virulant form of pneumonia.

It's a form that doesn't respond to most anitbiotics. Luckily for me, there
is one which works. Mind you, having a body temperature of 104° for a
couple of days doesn't do a lot for ones long term health, nor does the
damage to ones lungs.

--
From KT24 in Surrey

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18