Seventh person dies in Upper East Side Legionnaires' outbreak
UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- A seventh person has died from the Legionnaires' outbreak on the Upper East Side, health officials said on Thursday.
So far, 92 people have been diagnosed with the disease since the outbreak was first identified. Five patients remain hospitalized, while 67 have already been discharged.
The New York City Health Department is currently investigating a community cluster of Legionnaires' disease in the Upper East Side neighborhoods of Carnegie Hill and Yorkville (ZIP codes 10028, 10128, and 10075).
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin continued to stress that the department believes the source of the Legionella exposure has been eliminated, and said that no one has reported symptoms in the last two weeks.
"At this time, we have inspected every cooling tower that has tested positive and will share more information soon enforcement actions," Dr. Martin said.
Council Speaker Julie Menin released a statement, saying "The Council remains committed to doing everything we can to ensure a tragedy like this never happens again."
Cooling tower remediation results:
- 77 cooling towers at 75 buildings tested PCR positive for the presence of Legionella bacteria in initial testing.
- 59 cooling towers at 58 buildings tested culture positive, confirming the presence of live Legionella bacteria. All have been cleaned and disinfected.
- In total, 124 cooling towers have tested culture negative.
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