Re-opening hairdressing salons, barber shops and gyms following COVID-19 lockdown: reducing risks from Legionella species through successful domestic steam disinfection of showerheads

Beverley C. Millar; Jonalyn Ferris; Alan Murphy; Norman Reid; John E. Moore

doi:10.1099/acmi.0.000229

Volume 3, Issue 5

Short Communication

Open Access

Re-opening hairdressing salons, barber shops and gyms following COVID-19 lockdown: reducing risks from Legionella species through successful domestic steam disinfection of showerheads

Beverley C. Millar^1,2, Jonalyn Ferris², Alan Murphy², Norman Reid² and John E. Moore^1,2
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Affiliations: ¹ School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, The Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, Queen’s University, Northern Ireland, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK ² Laboratory for Disinfection and Pathogen Elimination Studies, Northern Ireland Public Health Laboratory, Nightingale (Belfast City) Hospital, Northern Ireland, Belfast BT9 7AD, UK
*Correspondence: John E. Moore, [email protected]
Published: 04 May 2021 https://doi.org/10.1099/acmi.0.000229

Abstract

Given the importance of disinfecting showerheads from Legionella species and the lack of instructions as to how to successfully achieve this, the aim of this study was to examine the ability of domestic steam disinfection to successfully disinfect showerheads from Legionella species. Steam disinfection of Legionella pneumophila [n=3; L. pneumophila serogroup 2–15 (wildtype environmental water isolate); L. pneumophila serogroup 1 NCTC11192 (reference strain); L. pneumophila serogroup 1 (wildtype environmental water isolate)], L. erythra (wildtype environmental water isolate) and L. bozemanii CRM11368M (reference strain) were examined in this study. Steam disinfection employing a baby bottle steam disinfector device eradicated all Legionella organisms tested. Steam disinfection, when performed properly under the manufacturer’s instructions, offers a relatively inexpensive, simple, versatile and widely available technology for the elimination of Legionella species from contaminated showerheads. We therefore advocate the employment of such devices to regularly disinfect showerheads and shower tubing in hairdressing salons, barber shops and gyms, as a critical control in the elimination of these organisms from these sources, thereby enhancing customer/client/staff safety.

Received: 20/01/2021
Accepted: 09/04/2021
Published Online: 04/05/2021

Keyword(s): barber , hairdressing salon , Legionella , Legionnaire’s disease , steam disinfection and steam disinfector

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.

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Re-opening hairdressing salons, barber shops and gyms following COVID-19 lockdown: reducing risks from Legionella species through successful domestic steam disinfection of showerheads

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Volume 3, Issue 5

Short Communication

Open Access

Re-opening hairdressing salons, barber shops and gyms following COVID-19 lockdown: reducing risks from Legionella species through successful domestic steam disinfection of showerheads

Abstract

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