Legionnaires' Disease Lawyer

On Monday, January 29, 2018, Spartan Bioscience announced the launch of their Spartan Legionella Detection System. This product would represent the first on-site DNA test for Legionella and furthermore perhaps one of the fastest tests for Legionella as it can detect and quantify the bacteria in approximately 45 minutes. The detection system uses a portable DNA analyzer along with a single-use disposable test cartridge and was recently announced as the winner of the 2018 AHR Expo Innovation Award for Indoor Air Quality, a competition put on by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

If this product can truly consistently and successfully test and quantify the presence of Legionella bacteria in around 45 minutes, it would mark an incredible improvement from the current testing methods, whereby a water sample is often shipped to a third-party lab and required to be grown on a Petri dish for around two weeks. In addition, culture tests can sometimes underestimate the Legionella concentration, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finding that this underestimate can even be off by a factor of 10.

There has been a good deal of buzz around this product due to its proposed capabilities, a factor which has even gotten some national governments, such as the Canadian government, more interested in this product’s development and the research behind it. As such, the more widely available on-site testing can be made, the better prevention and proactive methods may become available to owners and managers of residential and commercial homes.

Jules Zacher is an attorney in Philadelphia who has tried Legionnaires’ disease cases across the U.S.  Please visit LegionnaireLawyer.com again for updates.