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New York City Adopts Measures to Slow Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak
The New York Times • • general
Key Points:
- The Mamdani administration is implementing new strategies to quickly address a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, which has infected 23 people and hospitalized 17.
- Legionnaires’ disease, a pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria found in warm, stagnant water, often spreads through rooftop cooling towers in large buildings that release contaminated water vapor.
- New measures will publicly identify buildings suspected of being sources of the bacteria and require owners to promptly clean their cooling towers to prevent further spread.
- Legionnaires’ outbreaks are common in New York City, with 200 to 700 cases annually; notable outbreaks include more than 100 cases in Harlem last summer and a deadly 2015 outbreak in the South Bronx linked to a hotel cooling tower.
