Legionella bacteria poses a significant risk to the water systems of buildings. People who breathe in water vapor contaminated with Legionella are at risk of Legionnaires' disease, a pneumonia that kills 1 in 10 infected people.
Despite increased Legionella testing, CDC reports show a 550% increase in Legionnaires' cases since 2000. Experts estimate there are hundreds of thousands of Legionnaires' cases each year, making Legionnaires' a more common and deadlier risk to building occupants than asbestos.
The problem is Legionella detection has been limited to slow and inaccurate testing methods that rely on off-site labs. To solve this problem, Spartan applied our medical-grade DNA technology to create an environmental testing platform for detecting multiple waterborne pathogens, the first of which is an on-site Legionella DNA test.
Legionella can grow to outbreak levels in 7 days, but the traditional Legionella culture testing method takes 14 days to provide a result. Spartan's test quantifies the amount of live Legionella in a water source in just 45 minutes so you can detect contamination in real time.
Culture testing underestimates Legionella by an average of 17-fold and has a false negative rate of 62% because bacteria die in shipping. Spartan's test solves this problem by enabling on-site testing with a Nobel Prize-winning chemistry called qPCR. Spartan's test is calibrated so 1 GU/mL = 1 CFU/mL and uses proprietary technology to detect live and not dead Legionella.
Fast and accurate results mean your team can immediately treat Legionella contamination before it grows to outbreak levels. Spartan's on-site test provides rapid results. This prevents outbreaks and helps you avoid lawsuits and negative publicity.
Data center water systems are particularly susceptible to Legionella growth and need to be tested regularly to prevent the risk of downtime.
MoreWater treatment companies must ensure they have an accurate Legionella testing method to quickly validate that their treatment is working.
Many commercial, industrial, and residential building operators are legally required to test for Legionella to protect the health of their occupants.
Landsec is always looking for innovative solutions that can make our buildings and their occupants safer. We look forward to working with Spartan and investigating methods to further reduce the risk of Legionnaires' outbreaks in our buildings.
