The NSW Government has awarded a $500,000 grant to NSW Health Pathology at Westmead Hospital to fund research designed to improve the detection and response to outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease.
Legionnaires’ disease is an infection of the lungs spread by breathing in droplets of water contaminated with legionella bacteria. An important source of infection for these bacteria is air conditioning cooling water systems. The Public Health Regulation 2022 requires cooling water systems to be managed safely to prevent the growth and transmission of Legionella bacteria.
It is often difficult to pinpoint the source of a legionella outbreak with accuracy. Cooling water systems may be only briefly contaminated by legionella bacteria, and very fine water droplets that contain the bacteria may be released from the cooling water system and infect people walking nearby, as well as contaminating other adjacent cooling water systems.
NSW Health Pathology (NSWHP) will use the grant to design a genomic surveillance system to significantly streamline the process of searching for matches between samples.
Integrating genomics technology into existing environmental and public health surveillance can help reduce the time it takes to confirm clusters of legionellosis in the community by identifying links between cases that otherwise would not have been recognised.
NSWHP’s Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research at Westmead will host the research project, led by chief investigators Professor Vitali Sintchenko (NSWHP and Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute, University of Sydney) and Dr Eby Sim (School of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney).
The research team is also partnering with Health Protection NSW, and Public Health Units in Western Sydney and South Eastern Sydney Local Health Districts.
For more information on Legionnaires’ disease, visit the NSW Health fact sheet.
Minister for Medical Research David Harris said:
“There have been several large outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease in Sydney in the past few years, and the community stands to benefit from innovative new tools to help control outbreaks.
“If successful, this research will enable public health authorities to confirm clusters of cases sooner, potentially helping them identify the source of infection and prevent further spread in the community.”
University of Sydney Professor Vitali Sintchenko said:
“This collaborative project is going to use clever genomics that can collect information directly from respiratory samples without the need to grow bacteria in the lab.
“This will increase the number of relevant cases that can be investigated.”