PRESS RELEASE JULY 2020The French brand C4Hydro is launching the Mini-Lab, the first pocket scientific laboratory! Used with the Water Test rang...
Published on by Stéphane Logassi, stephane.logassi@diamidex.com
The French brand C4Hydro is launching the Mini-Lab, the first pocket scientific laboratory! Used with the Water Test range for the fast detection of bacteria, it allows everyone to check the water in their home and to obtain a result wholly independently.
Marseille, July 2020 – A major breakthrough in controlling the health risk: C4Hydro, a specialist in the fast detection of bacteria in water, is launching its new range of tests intended for private individuals who wish to be sure that the water in their home (shower, pools, spas, water tanks or wells) is free from contamination.
All water systems can be colonised by pathogenic bacteria such as legionellae or coliforms (including Escherichia coli). They are the source of serious infections (legionellosis, acute gastroenteritis, meningitis, septicemia...). To respond to this major health risk, C4Hydro has developed an innovative concept. The principle: take science out of the laboratories and widen access to the tools for scientific analysis in order to allow everyone to effectively check their water reliably, quickly and simply.
The innovation? The Mini-Lab, a pocket laboratory whose key element is a portable incubator. No larger than a smartphone, it reproduces the conditions of culturing microorganisms in a laboratory, which is the most reliable method of detecting bacteria. The technique is the same: C4Hydro has just simplified and adapted it for use at home.
Having been designed by scientists with a background in the highest levels of French academia (CNRS: the French National Centre for Scientific Research) and redesigned for private individuals, two kits are coming onto the market: the legionella detection kit and the coliforms detection kit (including Escherichia coli).
This summer, keep an eye on bathing waters: fertile ground for the development of coliforms (including E. coli), which are bacteria indicating fecal contamination
>>Swimming pools – spas – beaches
Each year, beaches and public swimming pools are closed due to contamination with coliforms (including Escherichia coli). These bacteria develop in the digestive tract of warm-blooded animals. Their presence in water therefore indicates a fecal contamination which may turn out to bear diseases, viruses and other pathogenic microorganisms.
Even though the most frequent contaminations are from human sources, in particular from young children, they can also originate from domestic or wild animals. Beaches, private or public swimming pools and spas, even those which are chlorinated, are the bathing locations which are the most affected by this bacteriological risk. Coliforms are also found during or after heavy rainfall. Flows of water can drain fecal contaminants which end up in outdoor swimming pools.
➔ Contaminated water which is ingested or which comes into contact with the mucous membranes can cause severe infections: food poisoning, acute gastroenteritis, meningitis, urinary infections, or even septicemia (a generalised infection which is fatal in 27 to 50% of cases). In young children, this can cause a haemolytic and uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious toxic shock which affects the kidneys and can manifest itself in an acute renal insufficiency.
Other dangerous bacteria have to be monitored. This is the case with legionellae, which cause legionellosis, a serious respiratory infection which affects tens of thousands of people each year.
>>Showers – taps – spas – air conditioning – misters
Cases of legionellosis have increased by 220% since 2005 in Europe1. This respiratory infection is fatal in 10% of cases. In vulnerable or elderly people, the mortality rate can reach 50%. It invariably necessitates hospitalisation. It is not obligatory to declare the disease in every country, but it is estimated that many tens of thousands of people could be afflicted each year across the globe. A recent study by the American National Academy of Sciences reveals that the disease remains very widely underestimated: 20 to 50% might not be diagnosed2. This is a serious disease which can have serious physical or neurological consequences, which are sometimes irreversible.
The culprits? The legionellae, those bacteria which develop in water systems which have a temperature between 25 and 45°C. Once inhaled via water vapour during a simple shower or a bath, they lodge themselves in the lungs until they produce acute pneumonia.
There is currently no vaccine and no preventative treatment for legionellosis. And the resistance of the bacteria to antibiotics raises numerous questions regarding the increased risk of contamination. Indeed, these questions make it necessary to strictly and flawlessly manage the health risk.
How can these alarming figures be explained?
According to the Center for Disease Control in the United States, 90% of legionellosis cases could be avoided with a better risk prevention policy.3 Certain countries, such as Finland, Sweden, Norway or Denmark have put checking measures in place which make it obligatory to declare the disease and which impose checks on buildings and facilities which are open to the public, such as retirement homes, hotels, hospitals or social housing. Alas, when the legislation is applied, it only compels establishments to perform just one single test per year. This is far from sufficient, in the face of the real nature of the risk. It is all the more alarming that the regulation does not apply to individual housing, which is therefore not monitored even though it is just as exposed.
What are the other possible causes? Global warming is one trail. The rise in temperatures would promote the development of these bacteria. These can reach millions of individual examples per litre of water once they have colonised a system. It therefore becomes very difficult to eradicate them. After an expensive treatment (chemical or heat treatment) performed by a professional, repeat occurrences remain very frequent.
Faced with risk, the watchword is: prevention
C4Hydro has developed its first two bacteriological detection kits to respond to this health risk. Due to their speed and simplicity, they make it possible for anyone to check their water fully independently, and to treat it if necessary, BEFORE it leads to an infection. The Water Test range is the only one on the market to be based on the culturing of bacteria with an incubation cycle. This is an unprecedented innovation which guarantees reliable results for private individuals.
How do the C4Hydro tests work?
The Water Test test range is based on the use of the Mini-Lab, a pocket laboratory in a small case, which must be combined with the desired analysis kit: the legionellae kit or the coliforms kit. The Mini-Lab contains two syringes and a mini-incubator which will incubate any bacteria sampled. During the incubation time, they will evolve in an enclosed environment which is favourable to their development and safe for the user, which is capable of revealing them. Like a true laboratory analysis, the procedure consists in simply taking a sample of water to be analysed and following a simplified scientific protocol. 20 to 30 minutes of handling are necessary to perform the test. After these operations, all you have to do is leave the incubator plugged into the mains for the recommended time, depending on the bacteria being tested: 24h for coliforms, and only 48h for legionellae, instead of 10 days in laboratories. The result is simple to read and operates either via the colouring of the sample (for the coliforms), or via the reading of a strip (for the legionellae).
The Water Test range is the only one to be based on the culturing of bacteria with an incubation cycle. This is an unprecendented, patented innovation which guarantees reliable results for both private individuals and professionals
1 Europe Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2019, https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/home
2 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2019. Management of Legionella in Water Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25474
3 https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/about/prevention.html
4 https://www.larecherche.fr/prix-la-recherche-ev%C3%A9nement/prix-la-recherche-2015-un-palmar%C3%A8s-dexception
5 Https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201311062
Attached link
https://shop.c4hydro.com/our-products/?lang=enTaxonomy
- Biotechnology
- Legionella Control