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Re:The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy... by coryrc on Tuesday July 06, 2021 @11:37PM (#27757081)
Man, let me tell you about my friend the Greeks. Any time they leave the house, turn off the water heater. Hotel: water heater is off until you ask. All because in the 50s (iirc) they incorrectly installed a bunch of heaters which exploded from overpressure. I'd be surprised if they have unusually high rates of Legionnaires'.
Re:The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy... by cartoonworld on Tuesday July 06, 2021 @11:55PM (#27757173)
A quick google proves your intuition pretty spot on. Looks like there was a major increase of the disease between 2016-2018.

Greek public health announcement regarding outbreaks ~2018: https://www.acg.edu/about-acg/institute-of-public-health/fac...

An anecdotal account of a man contracting Legionnaire's while on holiday in Greek apartment: https://www.irwinmitchell.com/news-and-insights/newsandmedia...

An older account of a similar ocurrance in a hotel, just as you describe: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/004313...

Granted, no mention of this particular cultural artifact. Global temperature warming was cited in some reports as part of the cause of these outbreaks. It seems that the bacteria really likes to live in showerheads, so especially older shower heads can accumulate legionella especially given commonly lukewarm temperatures. This creates a perfect storm of ideal reservoirs, protected, moist, temperature conditions and aerosolized distribution.

Nasty.