On September 20, 2024, the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) published a draft standard SANS 11731, proposing Standard for the Detection and Enumeration of Legionella Bacteria in Water Quality, with a comment period ending on November 22, 2024, for feedback. Key elements include:

(1) Methods applicable to the isolation and culture of Legionella bacteria in a wide range of water samples, including drinking water and natural water, and the estimation of the number of Legionella bacteria therein;

(2) based on the source/characteristics of the sample, (international) national legislation and the reason for sampling or investigation, legionella in water samples are concentrated by membrane filtration, diluted or directly inoculated, and after incubation, morphologically characterized colonies on selective media are considered as suspected legionellae and confirmed by passaging culture;

(3) Establishes sampling requirements, which should avoid excessively cold or hot temperatures, specifies procedures and parameters for testing, incubation, /confirm/iation, and methods of enumeration.

Learn more: https://www.sabs.co.za/Standards-Development/draft/docs/SANS11731ED2_TC147_SC04_DSS_1.pdf