#COVID19 Preprint Journal club: “Considerations for Large Building Water Quality after Extended Stagnation”

This one falls in the category of “yet another problematic thing to think about”.  In this article “Considerations for Large Building Water Quality after Extended Stagnation” the authors are not talking about COVID19 per se.  They are discussing the hazards associated with stagnant water after building remain closed for a long time because of the …

Story behind the paper: RtxA type 1 secretion system and other virulence factors in Legionella

So this work is a spinoff of a big project that we were involved in (but almost all of the work was done by Amy Pruden’s lab at Virginia Tech).  In the larger project, they examined the genomes of over 100 clinical isolates of Legionella pneumophila, as well as 10 clinical isolates from patients during …

Legionella sequencing in tap water and clinical isolates from Flint, MI

So this was a very interesting paper to be involved in.  On the one hand all our lab really did was to facilitate some genome sequencing and help with the assemblies, validation of those assemblies, and some genomics work.   Standard fare for the lab.  But… these were over 100 Legionella pneumophila isolates collected from either …

Quick journal club post on Legionella and Mycobacterium in premise plumbing

Came across this relevant article today; “The sporadic nature of Legionella pneumophila, Legionella pneumophila Sg1 and Mycobacterium avium occurrence within residences and office buildings across 36 states in the United States“.   Abstract Aim Premise plumbing may disseminate the bacteria Legionella pneumophila and Mycobacterium avium, the causative agents for legionellosis and pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterium disease …

NASEM Legionella Meeting 4 (Oct 22nd 2018)

Another NASEM meeting of possible interest.  Both in person and online, October 22nd, 2018.  Here’s a link to the registration.   We invite you to join the open session of our fourth committee meeting. At the meeting we will hear from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) on implementation of their 2014 directive. We will also hear …

The Bath Toy Microbiome

I just got pointed to this article today “Ugly Ducklings – the dark side of plastic materials in contact with potable water“, along with the accompanying commentary “About duck, pipes, and microbiomes“.  I think this is a fascinating study for a few reasons.  Firstly, like probably most parents, I observed and wondered about the biofilms …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, April 23, 2017

Catching up after a couple of busy weeks. Microbes in the hospital Diversity changes of microbial communities into hospital surface environments – Rika Yano – Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy ($31.50)  Previous works have demonstrated considerable variability in hospital cleanliness in Japan, suggesting that contamination is driven by factors that are currently poorly controlled. We undertook 16S …

Legionella in the News

A few stories of possible interest on Legionella Source: Call to increase Legionella controls at home and hospitals Occasional testing for Legionella bacteria in hot water services, air-conditioner cooling towers and other potable water is not an adequate safeguard against a disease outbreak, a public health expert warns. Source: What You Need to Know About …

Legionella bacteria in Parliament showers 

So in searching for news stories about bacteria in buildings I found another one with some political connections: Source: Legionella bacteria spread into Parliament showers – timesofmalta.com This follows on my post from earlier: “Derelict White House” contaminated by leptospirosis causing bacteria #WhiteHouse As with that post, my headline here is not the whole story.  Yes Legionella …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, January 21, 2017

  Microbes in the house and office A survey of xerophilic Aspergillus from indoor environment, including descriptions of two new section Aspergillus species producing eurotium-like sexual states – Cobus M. Visagie – MycoKeys (OA) Xerophilic fungi grow at low water activity or low equilibrium relative humidity and are an important part of the indoor fungal …