\n<\/p>\n
A legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in New York City has claimed its first life, health officials said Friday.<\/p>\n
Officials didn\u2019t release additional information about the person\u2019s identity, age or details on when and how they fell ill.<\/p>\n
Investigators are still trying to pinpoint the source of the outbreak on Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side that has infected at least 67 people and hospitalized dozens, according to city health department data. Much of the scrutiny has focused on the air-conditioning systems atop many large buildings, which can release water vapor carrying the bacteria.<\/p>\n
Legionnaires\u2019 disease, a form of pneumonia, is treatable but kills about 10% of patients, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, seven people died and more than 100 were sickened during an outbreak in New York\u2019s Harlem neighborhood.<\/p>\n
City officials began tracking the current outbreak on 2 July, after two people were infected in the area.<\/p>\n
The city says tests have identified either living or dead Legionella<\/em> bacteria \u2013 the microorganisms that cause the disease \u2013 in cooling towers on more than 75 Upper East Side buildings. They include prominent museums, private schools and pricey apartment houses.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not yet clear which, if any, of them contributed to the outbreak, but all the buildings were ordered to clean, drain and disinfect the cooling towers, which are devices sometimes used to cool large buildings.<\/p>\n Legionella<\/em> bacteria grow in warm water and can spread in cooling towers, hot tubs and showerheads. In many cases, people contract the disease by inhaling tiny droplets of contaminated water. Legionnaires\u2019 disease doesn\u2019t spread person to person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in New York City has claimed its first life, health officials said Friday. Officials didn\u2019t release additional information about the person\u2019s identity, age or details on when and how they fell ill. Investigators are still trying to pinpoint the source of the outbreak on Manhattan\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1485,2527,4391,7839,153,2337,476],"class_list":{"0":"post-51231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-city","9":"tag-dies","10":"tag-disease","11":"tag-legionnaires","12":"tag-outbreak","13":"tag-person","14":"tag-york"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}