{"id":127834,"date":"2025-08-08T01:46:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T01:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/127834\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T01:46:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T01:46:12","slug":"nyc-officials-say-worst-of-legionnaires-disease-outbreak-is-over-as-24-people-remain-hospitalized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/127834\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC officials say worst of Legionnaires’ disease outbreak is over \u2014 as 24 people remain hospitalized"},"content":{"rendered":"

The worst of the Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak<\/a> that killed three people and sickened several dozen is over, Big Apple officials predicted Thursday \u2013 even as the city\u2019s top doc acknowledged \u201cwe have more work to\u00a0do.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least 24 people remained hospitalized nearly two weeks after the cluster of pneumonia-like illnesses was first detected in Harlem, with five zip codes affected, city health officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur expectation is that there\u2019s no further bacteria in the air at this point so we can expect the cases to go down,\u201d interim Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

Cooling towers seen in Harlem amid the Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak in New York City on Aug. 6, 2025. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my top priority right now. Three deaths is unacceptable and we know we have more work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morse said 11 cooling towers had been scrubbed clean in order to stop the illness from spreading \u2014 but city officials wouldn\u2019t say which buildings had the troubled structures, arguing they didn\u2019t want to give anyone a false sense of security.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want anyone to be concerned that if they\u2019re in one building or another they may be more or less at risk,\u201d Morse said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our perspective, it\u2019s really important that everyone in the five zip codes understand that they may be at risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The areas where cases have been confirmed are in five Harlem zip codes: 10027, 10030, 10035, 10037, and 10039, along with the bordering communities, according to the city Department of Health.<\/p>\n

DOH officials said there were 81 confirmed as of Thursday \u2013 a slight uptick from the previous day.<\/p>\n

A map of the initial Legionnaire\u2019s disease outbreak in New York City.<\/p>\n

People can catch Legionnaires\u2019 disease from bacterial droplets that come from water systems like cooling towers and are breathed in. <\/p>\n

It can take between 12 to 14 days from exposure to the droplets to start feeling sick, according to Morse. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The disease isn\u2019t spread person-to-person, she noted.<\/p>\n

Morse cautioned people for now should remain vigilant if they start feeling sick, though she stressed the city has treated the cooling towers that tested positive for Legionella bacteria.<\/p>\n

Local elected officials on hand in front of the Adam Clayton Powell statue urged Harlem residents to seek medical help if they are beginning to feel under the weather. The illness can be treatable if caught early enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the time to say, let me just go to the grocery store and get some ginger ale and let me lay up somewhere,\u201d Councilman Yusef Salaam said. \u201cThis is the time for you to actually go and seek medical attention. That\u2019s how serious this is.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Sen. Cordell Cleare, who represents the neighborhood, introduced legislation on Wednesday in hopes of limiting cases going forward.<\/p>\n

She wants cooling towers inspected twice a year instead of once and building owners to tackle detected maintenance problem within 24 hours instead of a 48-hour timeframe. <\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding maintenance shouldn\u2019t cost people their lives,\u201d Cleare told The Post Thursday.<\/p>\n

According to city health officials, the worst of the Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak is over. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThree deaths, one death is too many\u201d the pol said at the press conference, adding, \u201cone of the things that\u2019s very important for us to do is examine and find out why this keeps popping up in black and brown communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleare also said she wants clarity on where the 11 troubled cooling towers are located in the area, but city officials haven\u2019t provided that information to her.<\/p>\n

City officials said they aren\u2019t identifying exact buildings because the issue is in the air\u00a0\u2014 which could affect a wider area\u00a0\u2014 and\u00a0is\u00a0not\u00a0in\u00a0the water of the buildings.<\/p>\n

The buildings\u2019 water is safe to bathe and cook with, the officials added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The worst of the Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak that killed three people and sickened several dozen is over, Big…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":127835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5231,64166,5249,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-127834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-harlem","10":"tag-legionnaires-disease","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-news","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114990624484688153","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}