An outbreak investigation of Legionella non-pneumophila Legionnaires' disease in Sweden, April to August 2018: Gardening and use of commercial bagged soil associated with infections.

In early June 2018, an increase in non-travel-related cases of Legionella non-pneumophila Legionnaires' disease (LD) was observed in Sweden and a national outbreak investigation was started. Outbreak cases were defined as notified confirmed or probable cases of L. non-pneumophila LD, with symptom onset after 1 April 2018. From April to August 2018, 41 cases were reported, 30 of whom were identified as L. longbeachae. We conducted a case-control study with 27 cases and 182 matched controls. Results from the case-control study indicated that gardening and handling commercial bagged soil, especially dusty dry soil, were associated with disease. L. longbeachae was isolated in soils from cases' homes or gardens, but joint analysis of soil and human specimens did not identify any genetic clonality. Substantial polyclonality was noted between and within soil samples, which made finding a genetic match between soil and human specimens unlikely. Therefore, whole genome sequencing may be of limited use to confirm a specific soil as a vehicle of transmission for L. longbeachae. Handling soil for residential gardening was associated with disease and the isolation of L. longbeachae in different soils provided further evidence for Legionella non-pneumophila infection from soil.

[Is it time to use sputum induction as a complementary specimen collection procedure in adult patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis?] / Sputuminduktion bör väljas före ventrikelsköljning vid tbc-prov.

Gastric aspiration (GA) and sputum induction (SI) are used for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in patients who cannot spontaneously produce sputum. This meta-analysis compares the sensitivity of GA and SI as alternative strategies for TB specimen collection in adult patients and describes procedure preference across Swedish Departments for Infectious Diseases (DID). We searched PubMed for articles on SI, GA and TB in adults. The meta-analysis included six articles (418 patients) and resulted in a crude OR 3.5 (95% CI 1.6-7.8) for positive culture from SI compared with GA. We asked all DID which procedure they currently used for collecting TB specimens (Sep 2019). Answers were received from 27/29 DID of which 67% (18/27) used SI as the primary diagnostic strategy when a patient could not spontaneously submit sputum. In conclusion, SI seems more effective than GA in detecting culture positive pulmonary TB in adult patients.