Journal of Medical Microbiology

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Journal of Medical Microbiology Comparison of Legionella longbeachae and Legionella pneumophila cases in Scotland; implications for diagnosis, treatment and public health response --Manuscript Draft-Manuscript Number:

JMM-D-15-00660R2

Full Title:

Comparison of Legionella longbeachae and Legionella pneumophila cases in Scotland; implications for diagnosis, treatment and public health response

Short Title:

Comparison of Legionella longbeachae and Legionella pneumophila infection in Scotland

Article Type:

Standard

Section/Category:

Microbial Epidemiology

Corresponding Author:

Ross Liam Cameron, MPH Health Protection Scotland Glasgow , UNITED KINGDOM

First Author:

R. L. Cameron, MPH

Order of Authors:

R. L. Cameron, MPH K. G. J Pollock, MPH, PhD D. S. J. Lindsay, PhD E. Anderson, MPH, MBChB

Abstract:

The reported incidence of Legionnaires' disease caused by Legionella longbeachae has increased since 2008 in Scotland. While microbiological and epidemiological studies have identified exposure to growing media as a risk factor for infection, little is known about the differences regarding disease risk factors, clinical features and outcomes of infection with L. longbeachae when compared with L. pneumophila. A nested case-case study was performed comparing 12 L. longbeachae cases with 25 confirmed L. pneumophila cases. Fewer L. longbeachae infected patients reported being smokers (27 % [95 % CI 2 %-52 %] vs. 68 % [95 % CI 50 %-86 %], p=0.034) but more L. longbeachae patients experienced breathlessness (67 % [95 % CI 40 %-94 %] vs. 28 % [95 % CI 10 %-46 %]), p=0.036). Significantly more L. longbeachae infected patients received treatment in intensive care (50 % [95 % CI 22 %-78 %] vs. 12 % [95 % CI 0 %-25 %], p=0.036). However, the differences in diagnostic methods between the two groups may have led to only the most severe cases of L. longbeachae being captured by the surveillance system. No differences were observed in any of the other pre-hospital symptoms assessed. Our results highlight the similarity of Legionnaires' disease caused by L. pneumophila and L. longbeachae and reinforce the importance of diagnostic tools other than the urinary antigen assays for the detection of non-L. pneumophila species. Unfortunately cases of community acquired pneumonia caused by Legionella species will continue to be under-diagnosed unless routine testing criteria changes.

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Click here to download Manuscript Including References (Word document) Comparison of Legionella longbeachae and

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Comparison of Legionella longbeachae and Legionella pneumophila cases in

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Scotland; implications for diagnosis, treatment and public health response

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R.L. Cameron1, K.G.J. Pollock1, D.S.J. Lindsay2 and E. Anderson1

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Health Protection Scotland, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

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Scottish Haemophilus, Legionella, Meningococcus and Pneumococcus Reference

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Laboratory, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

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Corresponding author:

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Dr Kevin Pollock

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Meridian Court

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8 Cadogan Street

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Glasgow

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G2 6QE

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Tel: 0141 300 1913

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Email: [email protected]

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Keywords: Legionella longbeachae, Legionella pneumophila, symptoms, risk factors

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Abstract word count: 249

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Main text: 1761

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Running title: Legionella longbeachae infection in Scotland

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Abstract

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The reported incidence of Legionnaires’ disease caused by Legionella longbeachae has

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increased since 2008 in Scotland. While microbiological and epidemiological studies have

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identified exposure to growing media as a risk factor for infection, little is known about the

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differences regarding disease risk factors, clinical features and outcomes of infection with L.

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longbeachae when compared with L. pneumophila. A nested case-case study was performed

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comparing 12 L. longbeachae cases with 25 confirmed L. pneumophila cases. Fewer L.

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longbeachae infected patients reported being smokers (27 % [95 % CI 2 %-52 %] vs. 68 %

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[95 % CI 50 %-86 %], p=0.034) but more L. longbeachae patients experienced breathlessness

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(67 % [95 % CI 40 %-94 %] vs. 28 % [95 % CI 10 %-46 %]), p=0.036). Significantly more

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L. longbeachae infected patients received treatment in intensive care (50 % [95 % CI 22 %-

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78 %] vs. 12 % [95 % CI 0 %-25 %], p=0.036). However, the differences in diagnostic

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methods between the two groups may have led to only the most severe cases of L.

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longbeachae being captured by the surveillance system. No differences were observed in any

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of the other pre-hospital symptoms assessed. Our results highlight the similarity of

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Legionnaires’ disease caused by L. pneumophila and L. longbeachae and reinforce the

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importance of diagnostic tools other than the urinary antigen assays for the detection of non-

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L. pneumophila species. Unfortunately cases of community acquired pneumonia caused by

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Legionella species will continue to be under-diagnosed unless routine testing criteria changes.

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Introduction

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Legionella pneumophila is the most common cause of Legionnaires’ disease in countries

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worldwide apart from Australia and New Zealand where Legionella longbeachae infection is

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more common (O’Connor et al., 2007; Graham et al., 2012). Since 2008 in Scotland,

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Legionnaires disease cases caused by Legionella longbeachae have been reported every year,

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with peaks in incidence in 2013 and 2014 (Fig). Previous studies have found cases are

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commonly keen gardeners with exposure to plant growing media (Pravinkumar et al., 2010;

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Potts et al., 2013). Indeed, in a survey of 24 bagged potting composts in the UK, 16 % of the

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plant growing media contained L. longbeachae (Currie et al., 2014). The rest of the UK has

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not observed an increase in the incidence of L. longbeachae infection, most likely reflecting

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under ascertainment; and the increase in Scotland is probably due to improved detection

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(Fig).

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Anecdotal reports from local health protection teams have suggested augmented virulence of

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infection with L. longbeachae. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to determine the

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differences, if any, with those infected with L. pneumophila in relation to patient

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characteristics, outcomes, signs and symptoms. It is important to appreciate these differences

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to aid in timely, appropriate diagnosis and the detection of potential outbreaks with resultant

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source elucidation (Pravinkumar et al., 2010; Potts et al., 2013).

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Methods

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Health Protection Scotland (HPS) undertakes passive, enhanced national Legionella

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surveillance and collects demographic and clinical information on each Legionnaires’ disease

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case through collection of surveillance forms completed by public health clinicians in the

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NHS Health Boards. Utilising these data, which are held in a national database, we performed

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a nested case-case study.

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Ten confirmed and two probable cases of L. longbeachae reported to HPS between 2008 and

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2014 were identified according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

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(ECDC) case definitions (ECDC, 2012). According to ECDC definitions all Legionnaires’

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disease cases must have a clinical diagnosis of pneumonia (ECDC, 2012). Laboratory

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diagnosis is required to define whether a case is confirmed or probable with cases being

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confirmed if i) Legionella is cultured from respiratory secretions or a normally sterile site; ii)

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if L. pneumophila serogroup 1 antigen is detected in urine; iii) or a case has a specific

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antibody response to L. pneumophila serogroup 1 (ECDC, 2012). A case is defined as

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probable if i) L. pneumophila antigen is detected in respiratory secretions or lung tissue; ii)

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Legionella nucleic acid is detected in a specimen, iii) the patient has a specific antibody

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response to non-L. pneumophila serogroup 1 iv) or a single high titre to a Legionella species

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(ECDC, 2012). Additionally, a case can be defined as probable if they meet the clinical

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criteria and the epidemiological criteria of exposure to the same common source or

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environmental exposure. Epidemiological criteria are commonly utilised in outbreak

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situations. Cases included in the study were diagnosed through a combination of culture,

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serology, PCR and, in the situation of most L. pneumophila serogroup 1 cases, urinary

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antigen testing. In Scotland, the majority of clinicians utilise the urinary antigen assay

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routinely for diagnostic testing of suspected Legionella infection, however, clinical protocols

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in some NHS Health Boards alert clinicians to perform PCR and culture on samples from

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patients with severe pneumonia (HPS, 2014). Two L. longbeachae cases in this study were

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culture negative but through a combination of Legionella species nucleic acid detection in

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respiratory secretions and evidence of a immune response (either a four-fold rise in titre or a

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single high titre of antibodies to L. longbeachae), these cases were identified as probable

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cases by the Scottish Haemophilus, Legionella, Meningococcus and Pneumococcus

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Reference Laboratory (SHLMPRL).

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The twelve cases of L. longbeachae were compared to 25 confirmed cases of L. pneumophila

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reported to HPS between 2008 and 2014. These cases were also defined according to the

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ECDC classifications (ECDC, 2012). Cases of both L. pneumophila and L. longbeachae

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infection were excluded if pneumonia status and clinical date of onset was unknown or not

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reported, if symptoms were not recorded in the database or if the cases had travelled to

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another country two to ten days before onset of symptoms. As the majority of Legionnaires’

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disease cases are travel related in Scotland, only a small number of cases were eligible to be

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included in the study. Further, L. pneumophila cases were excluded if they were part of an

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outbreak, as case definitions may have been altered during the incident. Data were entered

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into SPSS 21 (SPSS Inc., Chicago IL) for analysis. The Fisher’s exact test and the

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independent-samples t-test was undertaken to assess differences between cases, and p