Environmental Health Surveillance programME FOR THE PREVENTION OF LEGIONNAIRES’ DISEASE DURING THE ATHENS 2004 OLYMPICS

The Athens 2004 Organising Committee of the Olympic and Para-Olympic Games identified Legionnaires’ disease prevention as an important objective for health protection during the Games. An environmental health surveillance programme was launched in advance of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Among many other activities it included a series of inspections for the prevention of Legionnaires’ disease in water supply systems, cooling towers and decorative fountains. For the inspections, standardised reports were designed and a scoring system for qualitative assessment was developed. Environmental health inspectors were trained to carry out consistent standardised inspections and water sampling for Legionella. Guidelines for the prevention of Legionnaires’ disease were published and distributed among the inspectors