{"id":159305,"date":"2025-08-19T20:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T20:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/159305\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T20:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T20:44:13","slug":"kathy-hochul-brushes-off-nyc-legionnaires-disease-outbreak-as-5th-death-recorded-cases-climb-to-108","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/159305\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathy Hochul brushes off NYC Legionnaires’ disease outbreak as 5th death recorded, cases climb to 108"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul blithely brushed off Legionnaires\u2019 disease prevention efforts on Tuesday after a fifth New Yorker died in an\u00a0outbreak gripping Harlem<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The insidious pneumonia-like illness has sickened at least 108 people \u2013 including 14 who were hospitalized \u2013 and killed five as it flooded five ZIP codes in Upper Manhattan, city health officials revealed Monday.<\/p>\n

The death toll rose just as city officials announced Friday that\u00a012 cooling towers in Central Harlem<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 including four atop city- or government-owned buildings \u2013\u00a0tested positive for live Legionella bacteria and have been fully drained,\u00a0cleaned and disinfected.<\/p>\n

The rising death toll came as city officials confirmed Friday that 12 Central Harlem cooling towers testing positive for live Legionella bacteria have been fully drained, cleaned and disinfected. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

Cases have so far been reported in zip codes 10027, 10030, 10035, 10037 and 10039, along with nearby neighborhoods. Rob Jejenich \/ NY Post Design<\/p>\n

Hochul, when speaking with reporters after an unrelated event in Rome, NY, sidestepped The Post\u2019s questions about whether the\u00a0cooling towers that can breed Legionnaires\u2019-causing bacteria need to be put under stricter rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll determine the right approach on that if there is a legislative solution,\u201d she said, before implicitly washing her hands on prevention.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut these happen in communities unexpectedly,\u201d Hochul said.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t know how you can prevent it, but monitoring water wells is certainly one path to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building owners are required by law to test for the disease-causing bacteria Legionella every 90 days to avoid outbreaks.<\/p>\n

The New York Hotel Trades Council Harlem Health Center. A cooling tower at the building required cleaning. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

Hochul also largely defended New York City officials\u2019 response to the outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the city\u2019s all over this,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t think so, I\u2019d let you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harlem residents\u00a0expressed outrage last week<\/a>\u00a0at city officials for only revealing exactly where the disease hit despite reports of rising infections for weeks.<\/p>\n

The health department has urged those who live or work in the area and are experiencing flu-like symptoms to see a health care provider right away. Google Earth<\/p>\n

Until then, officials only revealed it had been detected in the ZIP codes 10027, 10030, 10035, 10037 and 10039.<\/p>\n

Health Commissioner Michelle Morse argued the city withheld the building addresses to help keep all New Yorkers vigilant, regardless of where they live.<\/p>\n

Locals also\u00a0claimed\u00a0the city dropped the ball on mandatory life-saving inspections.<\/p>\n

Only roughly 1,200 cooling towers were inspected for Legionnaires\u2019 bacteria during the first six months of this year, compared to nearly 5,100 at the same point in 2017, data provided by the city Department of Health show.<\/p>\n

The Legionella pneumophila bacteria that causes the disease. AP<\/p>\n

While deadly if not treated in time,\u00a0Legionnaires\u2019 disease<\/a>\u00a0is easily curable with antibiotics if caught early, officials said.<\/p>\n

The health department has urged those who live or work in the area and are experiencing flu-like symptoms to see a health care provider right away.<\/p>\n

Symptoms of the disease, which cannot be spread from person to person, include cough, fever, chills, muscle aches, and shortness of breath. Symptoms develop between two and 10 days after exposure.<\/p>\n

Between 200 and 700 of 8.5 million New Yorkers are diagnosed with Legionnaires\u2019 disease each year, according to the\u00a0health department<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Five people died at a Manhattan nursing home during the last major outbreak in the summer of 2022.<\/p>\n

In summer 2015, cooling towers at the Opera House Hotel infected more than 100 and killed 12 in the South Bronx.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul blithely brushed off Legionnaires\u2019 disease prevention efforts on Tuesday after a fifth New Yorker died…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":159306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,4446,884,5231,5371,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-159305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-death","10":"tag-diseases","11":"tag-harlem","12":"tag-kathy-hochul","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115057384869701722","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159305","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=159305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}