Advances in Legionella pneumophila: Climate Change, Water Safety and Public Health
A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Public Health Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 213
Special Issue Editors
2. Public Health Authority of the Region of Crete, 71201 Heraklion, Greece
Interests: Legionella pneumophila; Legionnaires’ disease; environmental surveillance; outbreak investigation; legionella risk assessment; Water Safety Plan (WSP); drinking water systems; recreational water systems; climate change and public health; One Health
Interests: microbiology; public health; water-borne diseases; epidemiology; neural networks; infection; diagnosis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Legionella pneumophila remains a major cause of severe pneumonia worldwide, causing community-, healthcare-, travel- and occupationally associated infections. In many countries, travel-associated Legionnaires’ disease is more systematically detected and reported than community-acquired disease, because of stronger links with accommodation-based investigations and international surveillance networks, indirectly suggesting substantial under-ascertainment of sporadic and community cases. Healthcare-associated and nosocomial legionellosis also represent a major concern, given the vulnerability of exposed patients and the complexity of hospital water and air-conditioning systems. In addition, Legionella exposure constitutes an important but often under-recognised occupational risk for workers who design, operate, maintain or are routinely exposed to complex water and air-handling systems, particularly in healthcare, hospitality, industrial, spa and wellness settings. Complex engineered water systems in tourist accommodations, healthcare facilities, cruise ships, spas, cooling towers, and public and residential buildings provide favourable conditions for Legionella growth, especially when design, operation or maintenance are suboptimal.
At the same time, climate change is reshaping the epidemiology of Legionella through rising temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, water scarcity, and extreme weather events that affect water demand, storage and distribution, particularly in tourism-dependent and water-stressed regions. Traditional environmental sampling and culture-based approaches, although essential, often suffer from delays and are not always embedded in structured risk assessment. There is an urgent need to move from reactive, sampling-driven control to proactive, risk-based management, supported by rapid, sensitive and reliable detection technologies that can be used both for timely investigation and colonisation control and for routine self-monitoring by facility managers and employers. This Special Issue welcomes multidisciplinary contributions spanning Legionella ecology and microbiology; travel-, community-, healthcare- and occupationally associated disease; climate-sensitive and One Health surveillance; Water Safety Plans; innovative risk assessment and management strategies; and advanced laboratory methods for rapid and reliable detection.
Dr. Antonios Papadakis
Dr. Dimosthenis Chochlakis
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Legionella pneumophila
- Legionnaires’ disease
- climate change
- Water Safety Plans
- risk assessment and management
- environmental and wastewater surveillance
- rapid detection methods
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