Legionellosis is a bacterial disease of environmental origin that usually presents two differentiated clinical forms: pulmonary infection, characterized by pneumonia with high fever, and the non-pneumonic form, which manifests as an acute febrile syndrome with a mild prognosis.
This bacterium has its natural ecological niche in surface waters, such as lakes, rivers, and ponds, where it is part of the bacterial flora. From these natural reservoirs, the bacteria can colonize the water supply systems of cities and, through the water distribution network, it can enter sanitary water systems (cold or hot) or other systems that require water for their operation, such as cooling towers and cooling circuits.
To this day, it is still common to find poorly designed installations, those without maintenance, or with inadequate maintenance, where chemical products for the protection and prevention against legionella are not used.
These types of installations favor water stagnation and the accumulation of nutrient products for the bacteria. If there is also an aerosol-producing mechanism in the installation, the bacteria can disperse into the air and penetrate the human respiratory system through inhalation.
To prevent outbreaks of legionella, it is necessary to properly maintain those installations that are susceptible to creating and transmitting this bacteria. In this regard, chlorine dioxide has proven to be an effective method for treating and preventing the onset of the disease.
Chlorine dioxide is an oxidizing biocide, not a toxic biocide. This means it kills microorganisms by interrupting the transport of nutrients across the cell membrane, not by interrupting the metabolic process.
Moreover, stabilized chlorine dioxide is a much more selective oxidant than chlorine or ozone, as it only reacts with reduced sulfur compounds, and secondary and tertiary amines, as well as some other active reduced organic reagents. This allows for much lower dosing of chlorine dioxide, which we can control with chemical dosing and control equipment, to achieve a more stable residual than ozone and chlorine.
It is also worth noting that the biocidal efficacy of chlorine dioxide is at least as high as that of chlorine or bleach (sodium hypochlorite) against Legionella, although at lower concentrations.
We invite you to download the following article, where you will find much more information about the disease, the most favorable places for its incubation, as well as the important advantages that stabilized chlorine dioxide presents over other more traditional solutions.
