Sharon Berk and her colleagues at Tennessee Technological University looked at 40 cooling towers in hospitals, universities, and industries and 40 natural environments such as lakes, rivers, creeks, and ponds.
Interestingly, they found 22 infected amoebas in the cooling towers and three in the natural-environment samples.
The infected amoebas in the cooling towers are capable of causing Legionnaires' disease, which is a severe form of pneumonia with fever.
The results of the findings are published in the online edition of the Environmental Science & Technology. The researchers conclude that these amoebas infected with the bacteria, Legionella pneumophila are more common in cooling towers than in natural environments.
The study says that individuals may develop pneumonia from inhaling Legionella in aerosol drifts from cooling towers.
Furthermore, researchers said that amoeba-associated microorganisms, similar to those found in this study, might be undetermined causes of various other respiratory illnesses.
