Stagnation arising through intermittent usage is associated with increased viable but non culturable and amoeba hosts in a hospital water system.

Hospital water systems are a significant source of , resulting in the potentially fatal Legionnaires' disease. One of the biggest challenges for management within these systems is that under unfavorable conditions transforms itself into a viable but non culturable (VBNC) state that cannot be detected using the standard methods. This study used a novel method (flow cytometry-cell sorting and qPCR [VFC+qPCR] assay) concurrently with the standard detection methods to examine the effect of temporary water stagnation, on spp.