Town hall meeting held in the Bronx to discuss latest Legionnaire's cluster
MORRIS PARK, N.Y. (WABC) -- The New York City Health Department addressed the latest cases of Legionnaire's disease in the Bronx at a town hall meeting Thursday night.
The cluster in Morris Park has killed one person and left 12 more ill.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has said all of the patients had pre-existing health problems.
The meeting was held at Maestro's Caterers on Bronxdale Avenue.
"We have a situation here in this broader community that, I want to say, in the outset, is different than what we experienced a couple of weeks back in the south Bronx," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday. "This is a more limited situation."
Officials say 35 cooling towers in area were sampled on Saturday and Sunday, and 15 came back with positive results (some buildings have multiple towers). They were located at:
--2725 East Tremont - Chase Bank
--1740 Eastchester Road - Calvary Hospital
--2964 East Tremont - Lehman High School
--1500 Waters Place - Bronx State Psychiatric
--1199 Sackett Ave - Einstein College
--1845 Eastchester Road - Einstein College
--1301 Morriss Park Ave - Einstein College
--1250 Morris Park Ave - Einstein College
--1865 Eastchester Road - Einstein College
--1925-1935 Eastchester Road - Einstein College
The cases are limited to the Morris Park area, where the mayor and health commissioner met with seniors Wednesday, reminding residents that the cluster is much smaller than the outbreak this summer in the South Bronx.
"Look at what's happening in our emergency rooms in the Bronx, we don't see any increased activity around pneumonia," said de Blasio. "So those are very hopeful signs."
"The new cases are all people who we went back through our records, talked to them about where they live, where they work and then attributed them to this cluster because we found a link with the Morris Park neighborhood," said city Health Commissioner Mary Bassett.
All 15 locations have been ordered by the health Commissioner to begin cleaning and disinfection immediately, and all Emergency Departments have been contacted to look for cases. More than 40 potential locations of vulnerable populations have been identified, including senior centers, and outreach teams have begun visiting them.
