This report describes the external quality assessment (EQA) scheme for the European Legionnaires’ disease Surveillance network, for the detection, isolation, identification, and enumeration of Legionella species.
This report describes the external quality assessment (EQA) scheme for the European Legionnaires’ disease Surveillance network, for the detection, isolation, identification, and enumeration of Legionella spp.
This is the first EQA exercise for laboratories participating in surveillance from the ELDSNet network that has been
organised by ECDC since 2015 and the EQA format and arrangements have changed. The current EQA scheme
uses an outbreak scenario with a package of clinical and environmental samples for the participating laboratories to process, depending on their technical capacity and protocols.
This report provides an analysis of the EQA performance of laboratories in the 28 EU/EEA countries in relation to the detection/isolation, identification, enumeration and quantification of Legionella spp. and the further characterisation of L. pneumophila, by serogrouping and sequence-based typing, from both clinical and environmental samples, where applicable.