External quality assessment (EQA) schemes to support European surveillance of Legionnaires’ disease 2019-2020 - EU/EEA countries

This report provides an analysis of the EQA performance of laboratories in the 28 EU/EEA countries in relation to the detection/isolation, identification, enumeration and quantification of Legionella spp. and the further characterisation of L. pneumophila, by serogrouping and sequence-based typing, from both clinical and environmental samples, where applicable. The report is split into two parts - clinical and environmental analysis - as the aim of this first new EQA exercise was to assess the baseline testing.