Second country visit in Ireland

Dublin, 6–10 October 2025 — Experts from the European Reference Laboratory for Legionella (EURL-PH-LEGI) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) carried out a country visit to the Public Health Laboratory in Dublin (PHL-Dublin) to support Ireland in strengthening national diagnostic and genomic surveillance capacities for Legionella.

Legionellosis is a notifiable disease in Ireland, with around 30 cases reported annually, mostly linked to travel. Underdiagnosis remains likely due to reliance on urinary antigen testing and limited PCR and culture capacity in regional laboratories. The visit was organised following PHL-Dublin’s request for support in improving clinical diagnostics, creating a national reference service, and reviewing water testing practices.

The expert team—Dr. Joao Rodrigues (INSA, Portugal) and Lara Payne Hallstrom (ECDC, Sweden)—worked closely with specialists from PHL-Dublin and the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC). A hybrid stakeholder meeting gathered representatives from multiple HSE regions and clinical services.

During the visit, experts reviewed laboratory workflows, diagnostic practices, PCR protocol validation, and culture requirements for clinical samples. Discussions also focused on whole genome sequencing (WGS), the proposed EU/EEA genomic surveillance scheme, and building a national WGS database through the sequencing of clinical and environmental isolates.

Key recommendations were shared with the visited laboratory which showed a high satisfaction regarding the technical country visit.