Microbiological Laboratory

Since 2000, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) registered an 800% increase in nationwide Legionella cases. Despite robust measures and increased Legionella laboratory testing, a 2019 report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found about 52,000 to 70,000 Legionella cases in the U.S. every year. Closer home, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported 140 Legionnaires’ disease cases in the state between January and July 2019 and warned of a high number of cases in the coming years. There have been many cases and reports of legionella outbreaks in many residential and business facilities in the state over the past few years. In December 2020, some researchers in the CDC used prior calculations of medical costs and new estimates of productivity losses and estimated that the annual economic burden of Legionnaires’ disease, in the US alone, was above $800 million.   At Biosan Laboratories, a Michigan-based