Residents of low-income South Bronx want reassurance amid Legionnaire’s

It assured the public that the medicines manufactured in the plant, which include inhaled asthma drug Advair, have not been infected with the bacteria, as the cooling tower was a self-standing structure that had no contact with the drugs, Reuters reports.

The result: the worst outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York state history – 115 cases and 12 deaths since the middle of July.

Officials said it would take more time and testing to figure out where the disease came from.

The researchers recommended public health officials pay special attention to potential sources of Legionella bacteria in poorer neighborhoods.

“An unprecedented event like this outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease in the South Bronx requires an unprecedented response”, says de Blasio”.

“Exposure to Legionella bacteria is particularly unsafe whenever you have a high concentration of people who have underlying health conditions”, said State Senator Jose M. Serrano.

But Legionnaires’ are scary bacteria, and this incident has occurred in the context of an ongoing Legionnaires’ outbreak stemming from a Bronx cooling tower that has left a dozen people dead so far.

Of 39 such cooling towers in the South Bronx tested for Legionella since the outbreak began, 14 were found to have been contaminated, city officials said Wednesday.

“One of the things that arose out of this is there now isn’t a registry in New York State or New York City to identify where these cooling towers are”, she said.

Whalen said there are water towers in the Capital Region, but the outbreak in the Bronx should not raise any concern in the area. “It would need to be in the air conditioning that goes into the building where the products are made or in the water that is used to make the medication”, he says.

Dr. Jay Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control for the city Department of Health, emphasized that the disease was not passed on from person to person and that most people weren’t at risk. This action reflects our chief priority: “to safeguard the health of New Yorkers“.

“We are dealing with a new set of realities we have never experienced that we have never encountered before in this city”, said de Blasio, who added that the nation’s largest city has had to create “a playbook” on the fly as to how to handle the crisis.

In April and May, 13 people got sick with Legionnaires’ in Flushing, three of whom live in the Bland Houses at 40-21 College Point Blvd.in Flushing, according to a Health Department spokeswoman.