\n<\/p>\n
A second person has died amid a legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in New York City, according to officials, who also say there is evidence that the source of the outbreak \u201chas likely been eliminated\u201d.<\/p>\n
New York City\u2019s health department served notice of the second death in a statement on Saturday. The statement didn\u2019t have any information about that person\u2019s identity, age, or details on when and how they fell ill, as was the case when city officials on Friday announced the first death in the outbreak on Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side.<\/p>\n
It also didn\u2019t specify the exact source of the outbreak, which as of Saturday had sickened at least 72 people, including nine people who remained hospitalized and 50 who had been discharged from the hospital.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, a statement attributed to the New York City health commissioner, Dr Alister F Martin, said there was \u201cencouraging\u201d data suggesting that \u201can aggressive strategy of testing, enforcement and remediation\u201d aimed at air-conditioning systems atop many large buildings \u201cappears to have stopped the source of exposure\u201d.<\/p>\n
Those systems can release water vapor carrying the bacteria.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe directed every building with an initial positive test result to immediately clean and disinfect its cooling tower, and every one has completed that work,\u201d Martin\u2019s statement said. \u201cWe have also reminded cooling tower operators across the city of their summertime requirement to increase use of biocides that kill\u201d the Legionalla<\/em> bacteria that causes legionnaires\u2019 disease.<\/p>\n City officials took those measures after two people on 2 July were confirmed to have been infected with legionnaires\u2019 disease, which is a form of pneumonia. The agency confirmed an average of more than eight new cases daily through 8 July.<\/p>\n The number of new cases then dropped to fewer than one daily from 10 to 17 July.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue inspecting every cooling tower that tested positive and will hold accountable any owner who fails to comply with our public health laws,\u201d Martin\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n According to the city, tests identified either living or dead Legionella<\/em> bacteria in cooling towers on more than 75 Upper East Side buildings. They include museums, private schools and apartment houses.<\/p>\n The statement also expressed condolences to those grieving the people who have died amid the outbreak.<\/p>\n Legionnaires\u2019 disease is treatable but kills about 10% of patients, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bacteria that causes the sickness grow in warm water and can proliferate in cooling towers, hot tubs and showerheads.<\/p>\n People can contract cases of legionnaires\u2019 disease by inhaling tiny droplets of contaminated water. It doesn\u2019t spread person to person.<\/p>\n In August 2025, seven people died and more than 100 were sickened during a legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak in New York\u2019s Harlem neighborhood.<\/p>\n New York\u2019s health department says the disease was named legionnaire\u2019s after a 1976 outbreak of the sickness in Philadelphia largely affected people attending a state convention of the American Legion, the war veterans\u2019 non-profit organization.<\/p>\n The Associated Press contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A second person has died amid a legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in New York City, according to officials, who also say there is evidence that the source of the outbreak \u201chas likely been eliminated\u201d. New York City\u2019s health department served notice of the second death in a statement on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51260,"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-51259","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\/51259","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=51259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}