NYC officials: Legionnaire’s outbreak claims 3rd life

On Thursday, officials identified two other sources contributing to the outbreak.

New York City health officials are now investigating the Legionnaire’s disease outbreak that started in the South Bronx, CBS Local News reported. The neighborhoods where these cases have been popping up-High Bridge, Morrisania, Mott Haven, and Hunts Point-have at least 15 affected cooling towers in the area, but the 31 individuals were not clustered in a single building or workplace.

Lincoln Hospital was decontaminated this week; decontamination efforts at Concourse Plaza are ongoing, and the city said disinfection efforts began at the Opera House Hotel Friday.

The mayor’s office said no guests at the hotel are among the 57 cases reported so far. “That’s why it is severe, but at the same time it doesn’t make everyone ill, and it doesn’t kill everybody”, Hassan Bencheqroun, MD, an interventional pulmonologist and critical care specialist at Pacific Pulmonary Medical Group, and an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Riverside, explained to Health.

The two people who died-a man and a woman-were both in their 50s.

The health department’s probe includes testing water from potential sources in the area. “We don’t know the source of this outbreak, but in recent months we have seen outbreaks associated with cooling towers and that’s why we’re focusing on them”, Bassett said.

Investigators have gotten results back from 11 systems, including the Opera House’s, and results from the remaining six towers are expected Friday evening. “The exception can be with folks who are already unfortunately suffering from health challenges, particularly immune system challenges”. It is not transmitted person to person. “It is important that there is prompt recognition of symptoms-which are similar to signs of pneumonia, such as cough, fever, headache, and sometimes gastrointestinal symptoms-with appropriate triage to a physician so that the patient can be treated with appropriate antibiotics as soon as possible”. Two people positive for the infection have died, but it remains unclear if the disease is indeed the cause of death, as reported by Alice Grainer from CBS 2.

It is advised that those who observe the symptoms should immediately seek medical attention and request to be tested for the disease.