{"id":930725,"date":"2026-07-12T22:34:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/930725\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T22:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:34:20","slug":"legionnaires-disease-outbreak-case-count-reaches-56-as-upper-west-side-building-tests-positive-for-the-bacteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/930725\/","title":{"rendered":"Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak: Case count reaches 56 as Upper West Side building tests positive for the bacteria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of the total cases, 16 people are currently in the hospital. There have been no deaths, according to city officials, though the disease can be fatal. Seven people died in Harlem after an outbreak of Legionnaires\u2019 disease<\/a>\u00a0struck the neighborhood last year.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0affected areas<\/a> in the recent outbreak remain contained in ZIP codes 10028, 10128, and 10075 in Carnegie Hill, Yorkville, and Lenox Hill on the UES, according to city data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the owners of a building on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side said they independently tested their hot water system and found that Legionella bacteria was present, according to an article in the West Side Rag<\/a> on July 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Per the article, a memo was sent to residents and shareholders of The Ardsley at 320 Central Park West, stating, \u201cWe are writing to inform you that recent testing detected Legionella in samples collected from the building\u2019s domestic hot water system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The building\u2019s owners said they hired a water management consultant who will flush and disinfect the building\u2019s hot water system on Thursday.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Alister Martin, MD, health commissioner of NYC, said the UWS building\u2019s testing is not relatd to the UES investigation.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NYC Health Department has been made aware of an Upper West Side building owner independently testing their building\u2019s hot water system for Legionella bacteria. This has nothing to do with the ongoing investigation on the Upper East Side,\u201d the commissioner said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When several people in a neighborhood get Legionnaires\u2019 disease \u2014 as in the case on the UES \u2014 the source is often a cooling tower, or possibly a hot tub or spray fountain, according to the city health department\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

If multiple people in the same building get sick \u2014 known as a \u201cbuilding cluster\u201d \u2014 the building\u2019s hot water system is usually the source, with exposure occurring while showering.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On July 10, the city released a list of 31 buildings<\/a> whose cooling towers preliminarily tested positive for Legionella bacteria amid the current UES outbreak. Among those buildings were the Guggenheim Museum, Asphalt Green\u2019s UES campus, a Whole Foods Market and Trevor Day School.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials cautioned that the preliminary PCR screening results do not establish that any of the buildings contributed to the outbreak or that live bacteria were present in their cooling towers.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Officials also said UES residents can continue to drink tap water, bathe, shower, cook and use their AC at home. The disease is not contagious.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s health department also continued to remind New Yorkers to seek medical attention if they exhibit symptoms, which include fever, chills, muscle aches and cough. People at increased risk include adults age 50 and older, people who smoke or vape, those with chronic lung disease and people with weakened immune systems or who take immune-suppressing medications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of the total cases, 16 people are currently in the hospital. There have been no deaths, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":930726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,210,89545,375310,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,375311,67,586,132,5230,26318,36246,68,2969],"class_list":["post-930725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-health","tag-legionella-bacteria","tag-legionnaires-disease-nyc","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-the-ardsley","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-upper-east-side","tag-upper-west-side","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116909392972540590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930725","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=930725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}