Tue, 5/21: 3:15 PM - 4:15 PM EDT
Education Session
Greater Columbus Convention Center
Room: A 125
CM Credit Hours: 1
Legionnaire's disease continues to be a public health issue, despite the increasing attention given to causative bacteria. Activities within the last 20 years have worked to improve drinking water quality, reduce human health risks, and protect against Legionella exposures. Cases of Legionellosis are increasing as time progresses. Could information on underreporting help identify these trends more accurately and gain a better understanding of the disease's true impact? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that Legionellosis underreporting is up to 2.7 times more than is reported annually, with other estimates placing the underreporting at 8 to 10 times above annual reported numbers. In this analysis, CDC Legionellosis data will be evaluated to illustrate trends in underreporting to aid the IH in understanding how incidence underreporting may mask the true disease impacts throughout the year. Data will be presented to evaluate weekly data compared with cumulative data. The data will be presented in a manner that allows for a comparison between weekly and cumulative figures to identify time trends for underreporting. Additionally, stratification of the CDC Legionellosis data will aid in visually illustrating the impacts of how administrative changes have resulted in downstream issues. The underreporting information will be used to illustrate the importance of considering underreporting and lagging disease incidence when managing facility water systems.
Upon completion, the participant will be able to:
• Identify the historical trends of U.S. Legionellosis cases.
• Recognize weekly, cumulative, and annual Legionellosis cases in the U.S.
• Interpret underreporting data to identify actual legionnaire's disease cases.
• Discuss how those cases might influence overall facility water management.
• Develop up-to-date Legionellosis disease tracking.
Content Level
Intermediate
Interactive Session Experience
Q&A
Organizational Category
Corporation/Company
Primary Industry
Healthcare/Pharma
Manufacturing
Office Environment
Topics
Aerosols & Airborne Particulates
Also part of the Virtual Program
Available as part of AIHA CONNECT OnDemand
Hazard Recognition/Exposure Assessment
Indoor Air Quality