Sixth person dies in Upper East Side Legionnaires’ disease outbreak - Gothamist

What the report says

Gothamist reported that New York City health officials have confirmed a sixth death in a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The outbreak, first identified in early July, has sickened 90 people, according to the city health department. More than 70 people were hospitalized at some point, and six were still hospitalized as of the report.

City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin announced the latest death Tuesday evening on X and expressed condolences to the person’s family. Health officials said the outbreak appears to have slowed: no new cases have been diagnosed since July 17, and no new symptoms have been reported in more than two weeks. Martin also said officials continue to think the source of exposure has been addressed.

The health department has said the outbreak is probably connected to a contaminated water-cooling tower on the Upper East Side. Investigators have been testing towers in ZIP codes 10028, 10128 and 10075, an area spanning from Central Park to the East River. Gothamist reported that 56 buildings in those ZIP codes had cooling towers that tested positive for live Legionella bacteria, while other buildings had positive rapid PCR results that can detect both living and dead bacteria.

The city has ordered affected buildings to drain, clean and disinfect their cooling towers, but officials said more testing is needed to identify which tower caused the outbreak. Legionnaires’ disease is a severe pneumonia caused by inhaling water droplets containing Legionella bacteria. The report noted that this is Manhattan’s second deadly Legionnaires’ outbreak in two years, following a Harlem outbreak last year that killed seven people.