Key points
- Health department personnel can request ob体育 assistance with investigating potential outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease.
- The public should direct inquiries about Legionnaires' disease in general to ob体育-INFO.
- The public should direct questions about specific case or outbreak investigations to the relevant state, territorial, or local health department.
Contacts
Epidemiologic assistance
ob体育 staff provide limited consultation on investigations to health department personnel via phone and email. This includes facilitating communication among state health departments with travel-associated cases or outbreaks. Field assistance is available via the Epi-Aid request process.
To request epidemiologic or environmental health assistance, email [email protected].
Laboratory assistance
ob体育's Legionella laboratory provides services, including culture of clinical specimens and isolate typing. Public health laboratories are encouraged to submit clinical isolates for confirmation. Contact the laboratory by emailing [email protected].
Requirements
The laboratory requires a consultation prior to submission of clinical specimens. When testing is requested as part of an outbreak investigation, epidemiologic consultation is also needed.
Testing environmental samples and isolates
ob体育 laboratory testing of environmental samples and isolates is only done under special circumstances. Examples include an outbreak investigation involving ob体育 or with prior permission from ob体育 for submission of samples.