Teams led by the state Department of Health will be focusing on high impact areas and providing information on Legionnaires’ disease to members of the public as well as surveying additional buildings for cooling towers.
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What Should You Do? The results foreshadowed the South Bronx disaster, having documented a sharp uptick in cases in recent years.
The disease is easily diagnosed and treated with antibiotics. “We are working to rectify and restore operations as soon as possible”. “We have a water treatment program in place”. However, there are no formal testing requirements for New York’s numerous cooling towers.
The disease is best avoided by following a strict maintenance of water systems to avoid contamination of the bacteria, since there are no vaccines available for the disease yet.
According to CDC, people with Legionnaires’ disease will have pneumonia since the bacteria grow and thrive in the lungs. It cannot be transmitted between people. “Legionella needs other organisms to survive, so it will infiltrate itself into other larger organisms like an amoeba”, says Frazier. According to the officials at the London-based company, the cooling towers will be cleaned and sanitised before the workers are allowed to come in contact with the self-standing tower again. People who inhale water vapor or mist containing the bacteria are at a greater risk of developing Legionnaire’s disease. Another lab is in the Corning Tower and the fifth lab is in Guilderland. “[The bacteria] could also be in air-borne dirt that gets sucked into the tower”.
Two-thirds of 32 outbreaks of drinking water-related illness reported in 2011-2012 were traced to Legionella bacteria – twice the figure documented in 2007-2008, the researchers said.
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.
How Big Is the Outbreak?
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De Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan) announced the city would jointly create uniform regulations to combat the disease.
