The impact of new guidelines in Europe for the control and prevention of travel-associated Legionnaires’ disease

On 1 July 2002, EWGLINET introduced European guidelines for the control and prevention of travel-associated legionnaires’ disease. This paper presents the results gathered by the surveillance scheme during the first two and a half years of the operation of the guidelines (to the end of 2004). Two hundred and thirty-seven new clusters and 70 cluster updates were identified. Investigations at 146 sites returned positive samples for legionella, and the proportion of positive sites reached over 60% in 2004. Thirty-four cluster sites were reported to have been investigated satisfactorily, but have gone on to be associated with subsequent cases (‘repeater sites’). Fifty-one sites were published on the European Working Group for Legionella Infections (EWGLI) website; the publication states that EWGLINET cannot be confident that the sites have adequate control measures in place. The operation of the guidelines is discussed, and the situation in Turkey highlighted as a particular success.