Our National Reference Center for Legionellosis at our Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene (IMED), the former Federal Bacteriological and Serological Investigation Institute in Vienna, has been in existence since 1987 and is part of our Public Health Business Unit.

The tasks and objectives of our National Reference Center include improving the microbiological-serological diagnostics of Legionella infections and confirming diagnoses.

• phenotypic and genotypic determination of legionella strains isolated from patients;
• Examination of Legionella antibody positive sera with monovalent antigens;
• Examination of Legionella antigen positive or borderline positive urine for quality assurance purposes;
• If there is evidence of a possible source of infection, test water samples from the suspected source of exposure for legionella;
• In cases of confirmed or probable fresh Legionella infection, work with the appropriate health authorities to determine the possible source of infection (There is a questionnaire for this purpose that should be completed by the treating physicians);
• Compare legionella isolates from patients and from water samples using molecular biology typing methods to confirm or exclude suspect water-carrying systems as sources of infection;