NYC Health Department Confirms Live Legionella Bacteria

The New York City Health Department released confirmatory culture test results for live Legionella bacteria in 34 cooling towers at 33 buildings on the Upper East Side as part of the investigation into a Legionnaires’ disease cluster in the area. Nine cooling towers have negative culture test results, with  culture test results for the remaining 140 cooling towers systems expected soon.

While culture testing is ongoing, all 34 cooling towers that tested positive for live Legionella bacteria have already undergone remediation and are fully cleaned, as are all buildings that previously tested positive for dead or live bacteria via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. As CMM previously reported, on July 14, the health department ordered an initial 76 buildings with cooling towers that returned positive initial PCR screening results to clean and disinfect their systems as part of the Upper East Side investigation. By July 16, all 76 confirmed they completed the required remediation. As of July 21, 82 cooling towers at 80 buildings have been ordered to clean and disinfect as part of the Health Department’s investigation, and all have completed remediation.

A list of addresses for cooling towers with a positive confirmatory test result are updated daily on the NYC Health Department website. As of July 21, 82 cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been identified. Five people have died.

“We have responded rapidly and aggressively to this to this Legionnaires’ cluster on the Upper East Side,” said NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alister F. Martin. “With two confirmed cases, we launched our investigation and directed every building with an initial positive test result to immediately clean and disinfect its cooling tower. These actions have saved lives. We believe that through our aggressive strategy of testing and remediation we have eliminated the source of exposure. We will learn more as our investigation unfolds and look forward to updating our existing policies and procedures to prevent future clusters. Right now, we are focused on identifying the source of exposure through laboratory analyses and holding accountable anyone found out of compliance with local laws.”