Legionella, a real threat

As every year at this time, we face in Spain with recurring news about Legionella, which impact is very high, not only from a health point of view, but also about business continuity. This year the focal point has been in a hotel in Calpe, closed since last 3th of July and in a restaurant in Mostoles, where there is 52 people affected and a dead person.

Legionella first infection of large proportions occurred in 1977, during a congress of the American Legion in Philadelphia. In the hotel in which the congress took place there was an outbreak of an infectious disease that killed 34 people and affected more than 180. Studies determined that the source of infection was a bacterium that had been spread by the air-conditioned hotel and, due to the nature of the conference attendees, was named as Legionella

In Spain, Legionella prevention is regulated by the Real Decreto 865/2003, from 4th of July of 2003, in which are identified different health and hygiene procedures for prevention and control of legionellosis. As every health activity, the RD identifies actions to carry out in both, to prevent and to act in case of an outbreak takes place.

Leaving aside the health and hygiene aspect, from a business continuity point of view the most important chapter of whole RD is the number 12, which identifies activities to do in facilities when an outbreak is detected. This chapter describes the following:

"In the presence of cases or outbreaks, very poor facilities, contaminated by Legionella, obsolete, or poor maintenance, the health authority may order the temporary closure of the facility until the defects are corrected or decommissioning. May not be placed back on track these facilities without the express permission of the competent health authority."

If we rely on the historical cases that have product in recent years, we could say that the risk important, and therefore the scenario of facilities unavailability is more than justified. Mainly, for the facilities most likely to proliferation and spread of Legionella, identified in the RD as follows:

• Cooling towers and evaporative condensers.
• Hot water systems with storage and return circuit.
• Heated water systems with constant stirring and recirculation through high-speed jets or air injection (spas, Jacuzzis, pools, glasses or therapeutic tubs, whirlpools, jets treatments, etc.).
• Industrial humidifiers centrals.

That’s mean every installation with refrigeration systems and/or air conditioner is likely to host a Legionella outbreak,mainly if a proper maintenance is not done that grant everything is clean.
Even more, the RD also includes sanctions, classified as minor, serious or very serious, which have economic penalties from 30.000€ to 600.000€, that also should also be taken into account by business continuity responsibles.

As a conclusion we can say that the Legionella must be taken into account when identifying business continuity scenarios and carrying out the following actions:

1. Identify the level of responsibility of the company in the refrigeration system and cooling towers.
   • If the site is an owned site, the company has to make reviews and regular checks.
   • If the site is rented, company has to require the leaseholder to perform the checks
2. Perform an impact analysis, with changes over the time, in which economic sanctions will be taken into account.
3. Define actions to be performed in case of outbreak will be detected: alternative sites, communication procedures to employees and customers, media communications, etc.