“Legion against legionnaires”: a quick project of institutions and students that did not cost the state
A quick project of institutions and students
Today, a new interactive legionella prevention page “Legionas against legionelles” (legionas.nvsc.lt) was presented at the Government House, the improvement of water quality control and opportunities for cooperation between students and the public sector were discussed.The fight against legionella is a concern of both responsible institutions and water users, Legionellosis is an acute infectious disease caused by legionella bacteria (Legionella).Although not always widely discussed, this disease is a serious threat to public health, causing dangerous and even fatal consequences, so it is important to know and understand how it can be prevented.The responsible institutions control the water supply chain before it reaches the buildings, where the water users themselves have to take care of the water quality.How to do it properly?
The creators of the interactive page
The creators of the interactive page “Legion against Legionella” and the executors of the water quality control improvement project remind: representatives of the Government Chancellery, the National Public Health Center and Kaunas University of Technology (KTU).“Although legionellosis is not a disease characterized by high morbidity – the cases registered per year are counted in tens, not hundreds or thousands, like other diseases, but even these cases can be avoided if we all act properly.Data collected during epidemiological studies reveal that people admit to reducing the temperature of hot water themselves.
This creates conditions
This creates conditions for legionella to breed.We hope that by improving the population’s knowledge about the prevention of this disease, which is what we are aiming for with this project, we will also avoid cases of the disease,” says Vaidotas Gruodys, one of the executors of the water quality control improvement project, director of the National Public Health Center.
The web page “Legionas against legionelles” created by KTU students
The web page “Legionas against legionelles” created by KTU students started operating today and can be accessed at legionas.nvsc.lt – it is part of the water quality control improvement project.This interactive page aims to raise public awareness of the fight against legionellosis, to present the most important information about how harmful legionella bacteria are and how to fight them in a clearer and more attractive way.According to the representatives of the Administration Department of the Government Chancellery, improving water quality control will also be aimed at paying more attention to water quality monitoring and increasing the awareness of individual water supply owners, for example, all water heating devices sold in Lithuania (known as “boilers”) will be provided in a few monthsinformation on the prevention of legionellosis (stickers with a link to the “Legion against legionella” page and other information).
Why Legion?
Hot water is an extremely complex product, the preparation of which involves many different institutions, so improving its quality control mechanism requires the coordinated cooperation of all relevant institutions.The role of the coordinator in this process is played by the Administration Department of the Government Chancellery, which takes care of the smooth processes of many projects important to the state of Lithuania.“After the analysis, it became clear that the greatest risk of contracting legionellosis occurs in individually maintained water systems inside buildings, so it was decided to educate the public about the risk of legionellosis and control options. Since the problem is multifaceted, it is necessaryto distinguish between the risks of legionellosis in individual houses and independently drilled boreholes or dug wells and centrally supplied water apartment buildings, it was decided to create an interactive website,” says Lukas Lukoševičius, one of the project promoters, Chief Advisor of the Administration Departmentof the Government Chancellery.
Hhe name can be considered as half of the success of the project
According to L. Lukoševičius, the name can be considered as half of the success of the project, so efforts were made to come up with a variant that properly reflects the idea.“As a society, we need to understand the need to prevent possible outbreaks of legionellosis and to act as a united legion against legionella bacteria,” L. Lukoševičius explains the meaning of the name.
At the presentation event of “Legion vs. legionelles” – about the possibilities of cooperation between institutions and studentsAt today’s “Legionas before legionelles” presentation event, the students who created the page legionas.nvsc.lt talked about the challenges they faced when creating the page, systematizing real-time data, and presented the possibilities of adapting the page for the disabled.“
Together
Together with Marius, we undertook this project at the suggestion of Gytis Vilutis, a lecturer at the Faculty of Informatics of KTU, instead of the usual engineering project of the module led by him, during which a sample system would be created.The lecturer’s proposal was to do useful work for Lithuania in cooperation with the Chancellery of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania,” said U. Saulevičius, who presented the page together with M. Pažera.“Having never done anything like this before, this job was challenging enough.At the same time, juggling university, a part-time job and this project was challenging, but fun.The most interesting thing now is to see how my personal page design skills have changed.Now I could do in a day what used to take a week.I would really recommend everyone to take on additional opportunities and gain useful experience in real projects,” said M. Pažėra.
The event not only presented the page
The event not only presented the page, but also reminded the main information related to the prevention of legionellosis, talked about the updated water quality control mechanism and the “IT sponsor” initiative developed by the Administration Department of the Government Chancellery.According to L. Lukoševičius, the “IT sponsor” initiative is being developed to attract as many high school IT students as possible as well as volunteer IT specialists to perform their practical tasks by participating in the implementation, updating and maintenance projects of state sector information systems.
Cooperation between the Faculty
“Cooperation between the Faculty of Informatics and executive authorities is continuously developed and promoted.Faculty representatives provide consulting opportunities in the IT field, and students are especially encouraged to join projects where they can use their acquired theoretical knowledge and apply it in practice.Inter-institutional cooperation is implemented in various forms: prepared projects, commissioned works and training organizations.This kind of practice achieves the highest results, because it is a great opportunity to communicate with researchers from other institutions, so we really recommend it to colleagues from other scientific institutions”, – KTU dean Rita Butkienė shared her good experience of cooperation with the guests of the event.
