New York health department investigates Legionnaires’ outbreak

The announcement comes in advance of a Legionnaires’ disease Town Hall this evening at Maestro’s Caterers, 1703 Bronxdale Avenue at 8 p.m.

Each year, about 200 to 300 cases of Legionnaire’s disease emerge in NYC, although the current Morris Park cluster and similar ones are considered rare.

Legionnaires’ symptoms include headache, fatigue and diarrhea, and strongly affect those with underlying conditions.

In spite of that request, and additionally new enactment ordering quarterly reviews of cooling towers, the city discovered for this present week that microscopic organisms had regrown in no less than 15 towers that had been cleaned as of late in the Morris Park segment of the Bronx.

A type of pneumonia, Legionnaire’s disease previously broke out in the South Bronx in July and August, killing 12 and afflicting more than 120. On Friday, one crew was going out calls on Manhattan’s West Side, and Clarity managing partner Greg Frazier showed NBC 4 New York how crews spray the inside and outside of towers with a mix of water and bleach.

All three undetected cases were hospitalized before the cluster was identified and one patient has since been discharged from the hospital, DOHMH said.

The earlier outbreak was traced to Legionella bacteria found inside the cooling tower of a Bronx hotel, prompting sweeping new regulations requiring the frequent inspection of the city’s cooling towers.

“With several sites in our neighborhood testing positive for Legionella bacteria, I continue to work closely with city and state officials to monitor the situation”, said Senator Jeff Klein. Soon after the test, the officials were ordered by the mayor of New York City to shut down the towers. All the towers in the Bronx were cleaned in the weeks after the outbreak.

De Blasio traveled to a Morris Park senior center Wednesday to reassure jittery residents that the disease can’t be passed person to person and that the city was on top of the cleaning effort.

In addition to the elderly, people with chronic lung disease and weakened immune systems are also often at risk for the disease, which is spread through bacteria.