Death toll from Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in NYC rises to 7

So far, the city has tested water in cooling towers at 17 buildings in the area of the South Bronx where people had been stricken, and found five of them contaminated with Legionnaires’ bacteria.

“I would just like (health officials) to get a grip on it before it gets out hand”, Bronx resident Jimmy Aovarado added. Within the present outbreak, investigators have examined 22 buildings within the outbreak space and say 5 cooling towers examined constructive for the micro organism: Lincoln Medical and Psychological Well being Middle, the Concourse Plaza Mall, the Opera Home Lodge, a Verizon workplace constructing, and the Streamline Plastic Co. The airborne disease has been contracted by at least 81 people, 64 of which have been hospitalized, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office.

“We are concerned about this unusual increase in Legionnaires’ disease cases in the South Bronx”, Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said.

Inside the gathering, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. urged the city to do more to prevent future outbreaks. More often, they said, the disease spreads through the systems that supply water for drinking, cooking and bathing.

Four people have died from Legionnaires’ disease in New York since mid-July and another 55 are now hospitalized, city health officials said Monday.

The bacteria grows in hot tubs, cooling towers, hot water tanks, large plumbing systems and decorative fountains.

Much of the worry stemmed from the fact that the city has not definitively identified a single source of the outbreak. “The city is going to take care of it before something else happens”, he said.

City officials and health experts held a town hall meeting about the outbreak at the Bronx Museum of the Arts on Monday to keep residents informed about the risks and what’s being done to stop the outbreak. The new standard, which lays out a process for buildings to develop water-management programs, was also endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Legionnaires’ disease was first named after a 1976 outbreak at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. The Health Department said remediation at the five towers has been completed. “It can be as long as 10 days between infection and disease”.

“It’s certainly possible and likely that there will be more cases of this disease identified over the next few days”, he said.

Yet even as cases of Legionnaires’ have surged in recent years, many buildings have continued to operate under a largely unenforced and often vague patchwork of guidelines, or no rules at all. Symptoms include fever, coughing and phlegm containing traces of blood. The illness can be treated with antibiotics.