August 01, 2025
2 min learn
Key takeaways:
- Legionnaires’ illness is a extreme lung an infection that may be handled with antibiotics.
- It may be contracted solely by inhaling or aspirating contaminated water and isn’t unfold between individuals.
A cluster of Legionnaires’ illness within the Harlem neighborhood of New York Metropolis has sickened no less than 22 individuals since final week, killing one, metropolis well being officers introduced.
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams instructed Thursday evening that the cluster could also be even bigger, writing on X that town well being division was monitoring 30 circumstances of the illness, which is a extreme type of pneumonia.
Water cooling towers are a standard supply of Legionnaires’ illness. Picture: Adobe Inventory
In a press launch asserting the circumstances, town well being division mentioned it had sampled “all operable cooling towers” in central Harlem and the encircling neighborhoods and directed constructing homeowners with towers that originally examined optimistic for Legionella — the bacterium that causes Legionnaires’ illness — to “provoke remediation inside 24 hours.”
Cooling towers are a widespread supply of Legionella, which may develop and unfold by means of a constructing’s water system. Individuals are contaminated by inhaling mist from contaminated water or aspirating the water into their lungs, however not by swallowing it. Legionella isn’t unfold from individual to individual and may be handled with antibiotics.
Remediation of the cooling towers implicated within the New York Metropolis cluster would possibly embrace “surprising” the water system with chemical substances, though the CDC notes that chemical therapies won’t remedy underlying points inflicting the contamination, which may embrace the presence of sediment or biofilm facilitating bacterial progress.
Along with cooling towers, outbreaks of Legionnaires’ illness have been linked to hospital sizzling water methods and ice machines, dishwashers, water births, and even avenue cleansing vans. Showers, sizzling tubs and ornamental fountains are among the many most probably sources of an infection, in response to the Environmental Safety Company.
Legionnaires’ illness was first recognized following an outbreak of extreme pneumonia at an American Legion conference in Philadelphia in 1976, which is the way it acquired its identify. Circumstances have risen dramatically because the early 2000s, peaking in 2018, in response to the CDC.
Signs of the illness embrace cough, fever, complications, muscle aches and shortness of breath, in response to the CDC. Individuals who smoke, are aged 50 years or older, or have an underlying sickness similar to most cancers, persistent lung illness, diabetes, kidney or liver failure, or a weakened immune system are at a better threat for getting sick. The CDC reviews that round 10% of all individuals who contract the sickness — and 25% of people that get it throughout a keep at a hospital — will die.
Officers urged anybody in New York with signs of Legionnaires’ illness to contact a well being care supplier.
“Legionnaires’ illness may be successfully handled if identified early, however New Yorkers at greater threat, like adults aged 50 and older, those that smoke or have persistent lung circumstances needs to be particularly conscious of their signs and search care as quickly as signs start,” Toni Eyssallenne, MD, PhD, town’s deputy chief medical officer, mentioned within the launch.
References:
- CDC. About Legionnaires’ illness. https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/about/index.html. Up to date June 9, 2025. Accessed Aug. 1, 2025.
- CDC. Controlling Legionella in potable water methods. https://www.cdc.gov/control-legionella/php/toolkit/potable-water-systems-module.html. Up to date Jan. 3, 2025. Accessed Aug. 1, 2025.
- CDC. How Legionella spreads. https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/causes/index.html#cdc_causes_risk-risk-factors. Up to date June 9, 2025. Accessed Aug. 1, 2025.
- CDC. Legionellosis surveillance and developments. https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/php/surveillance/index.html. Up to date June 9, 2025. Accessed Aug. 1, 2025.
- EPA. Legionella within the indoor surroundings. https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/legionella-indoor-environment. Accessed Aug. 1, 2025.
- Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) July 31, 2025. X.
- New York Metropolis well being division offers replace on Legionnaires’ illness group cluster in central Harlem. https://www.nyc.gov/website/doh/about/press/pr2025/nyc-health-provides-update-on-legionnaires-cluster.web page. Revealed July 30, 2025. Accessed Aug. 1, 2025.
