New York City now has 23 cases of Legionnaires' disease on the Upper East Side, officials say
The Legionnaires' disease cluster on the Upper East Side has grown to 23 cases, including 17 hospitalizations, the New York City Health Department confirmed Monday.
The number jumped after the city reported 18 cases earlier in the day, and 10 on Friday, which was up from two on Thursday.
Here's what we know
The Legionnaires' cluster is impacting the Yorkville and Carnegie Hill neighborhoods, and zip codes 10075, 10028 and 10128.
The health department has asked anyone who visited the "east side of Central Park between 76th and 97th Streets to monitor their symptoms."
NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin said testing for Legionella bacteria was underway on cooling towers in the neighborhoods.
"My hope and my expectation is that we will be able to identify the handful of cooling towers that need remediation and quickly act on them to begin to put an end to this cluster," Martin said.
Martin said out of the 160 buildings being investigated on the Upper East Side, so far only one-third of them have been tested.
Health officials said these cases are not related to any building's plumbing system, but rather were caused by inhaling mist from a contaminated cooling tower in the area. Officials believe it is safe to shower, drink and cook with tap water, and use air conditioning.
Legionnaires', a type of pneumonia, causes flu-like symptoms like cough, fever and difficulty breathing. It is not transmitted from person to person. People at higher risk include immunocompromised people, people with chronic lung disease, people who smoke or vape, and people aged 50 and up. It can be treated with antibiotics.
"We are going to make sure we are going to treat anything and everything that is associated with positive test, and that work has already commenced," Martin said.
Residents in impacted areas remain on edge
While Martin said the risk to most people is low, residents appear to be worried.
"They're scared to shower," said Miguel Castro, a doorman. "A lot of them are staying in hotels or going to other places."
"The three zip codes actually cover a substantial amount of the Upper East Side," said Valerie Mason, chair of Community Board 8. "It's from 76th to 96th, from Central Park all the way to the river, that's a lot of people."
Seven people died and more than 100 people took ill during a Legionnaires' outbreak in Harlem last summer.
No deaths related to the Upper East Side cluster have been reported.
On Monday night, health officials hosted the first of two town hall events. The second one is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola-Wallace Hall on Park Avenue between 83rd and 84th streets.
The city health department conducts building evaluations whenever there are two or more Legionnaires' cases within a year in the same building with a shared hot water system.
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