“Health officials are confident that one or more of the five locations … was the source of the outbreak, and the risk has been removed through disinfection”, said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fact sheet.
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New York City’s Department of Health on Thursday ordered the examination and cleaning of all cooling towers in the city, in response to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that has claimed 10 lives.
As teams in New York City ramp up testing of cooling towers, Rockland County authorities say they are monitoring the situation after an employee at the Chromalloy manufacturing plant in Orangeburg was diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease. The five towers were at Streamline Plastic Co., Lincoln Hospital, the Concourse Plaza shopping center near Yankee Stadium, the Opera House Hotel and a Verizon office building.
This expanded testing will also provide the state valuable data as to the amount of Legionnella in systems across the state and any potential dangers in surrounding neighborhoods in the Bronx or other parts of the state.
The symptoms – which include headache, fatigue, loss of appetite, fever, chills, confusion and diarrhea – tend to appear between 2 to 10 days after significant exposure to the bacteria. It is found more frequently in summer and early fall, but infections can happen any time of year.
There are about 540 cases of Legionnairres’ disease each year in New York, Zucker said. Experts believe water cooling towers, which are used to cool and ventilate some buildings in the city, are responsible for spreading the outbreak.
Annual reported rates of Legionnaires’ disease or, legionellosis, increased 217 percent to 3,522 cases in 2009 from 1,110 in 2000, according to a 2011 report from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
City Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said officials have a good handle on the outbreak. “… We’re optimistic that we’ve seen the worst of this outbreak”.
The city’s last Legionnaires’ outbreak was also in the Bronx, where 12 people fell ill in December 2014.
A Brunswick woman has died due to complications of “community-acquired” Legionnaires’ disease.
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The state has stepped in to expand testing of buildings that may contain the bacteria that causes the disease.
