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. 1982 Apr;88(2):205–214. doi: 10.1017/s0022172400070078

Hospital hydrotherapy pools treated with ultra violet light: bad bacteriological quality and presence of thermophilic Naegleria.

J F De Jonckheere
PMCID: PMC2133858  PMID: 7061835

Abstract

The microbiological quality of eight halogenated and two u.v.-treated hydrotherapy pools in hospitals was investigated. The microbiological quality of halogenated hydrotherapy pools was comparable to halogenated public swimming pools, although in some Pseudomonas aeruginosa and faecal pollution indicators were more frequent due to bad management. On the other hand u.v.-treated hydrotherapy pools had very bad microbiological quality. Apart from faecal pollution indicators, P. aeruginosa was present in very high numbers. Halogenated hydrotherapy pools were not highly contaminated with amoebae, and Naegleria spp. were never detected. On the other hand u.v.-treated pools contained very high numbers of thermophilic Naegleria. The Naegleria isolated were identified as N. lovaniensis, a species commonly found in association with N. fowleri. Isoenzyme analysis showed a different type of N. lovaniensis was present in each of two u.v.-treated pools.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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