NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- The New York City health department said there’s no longer an elevated risk of Legionnaires’ in the Upper East Side outbreak that sickened scores of people and killed seven.
The city has disinfected dozens of cooling towers that were found to have the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease. The illness has an incubation period of up to two weeks, and no one in the exposed area has developed symptoms of the disease in that period, the department said.
The department has “confidently closed this phase of our response,” Health Commissioner Alister Martin said in a news conference Friday, adding that the source of the cluster has been eliminated. Five people remain hospitalized.
The city tested the more than 180 cooling towers across the outbreak zone for live or dead legionella bacteria. Impacted buildings on the Upper East Side of Manhattan included well-trafficked spots like the Guggenheim Museum, a Whole Foods Market and apartment complexes. All of the towers were ordered to be cleaned and disinfected.
Legionella bacteria grow in warm water found in cooling towers that sit on top of buildings and help regulate the temperature of a HVAC system. Infected towers can emit a mist that can cause Legionnaires’ disease in people. The bacteria can sicken people who breathe in infected mist and cause pneumonia-like symptoms, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health officials have warned that anyone who visited the three zip codes in the cluster — 10128, 10028 and 10075 — since late June was likely exposed and should monitor for flu-like symptoms. Not everyone will fall ill, but one in 10 people who are sick typically die from the infection.
The vast majority of people exposed do not develop the disease. Older people, the immunocompromised, those with chronic conditions or current or former smokers are typically more at risk of falling ill.
Last year, seven people died and more than 100 were infected from an outbreak in Central Harlem. This sparked the city to change regulations for cooling towers, including requiring building owners to test for the bacteria every 31 days.
Legionnaires’ outbreaks occur annually in New York state, where 200 to 800 infections are reported every year.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com.
