{"id":963277,"date":"2026-07-27T21:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/963277\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T21:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:48:24","slug":"nyc-legionnaires-cases-send-many-to-the-hospital-a-survivor-recalls-her-long-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/963277\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Legionnaires\u2019 cases send many to the hospital. A survivor recalls her long recovery."},"content":{"rendered":"

Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat\u2019s free New York City newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Melinda Baron has a story for New Yorkers worried about the Upper East Side Legionnaires\u2019 outbreak: She survived after contracting the disease seven years ago and is grateful for the outcome, but spent many months on the mend.<\/p>\n

New York City health officials say 89 people have tested positive for the Legionella bacterium. Seventy-one have been hospitalized, and five others have died since an initial pair of cases was confirmed on July 2.<\/p>\n

Most healthy people who are exposed to the Legiononella bacteria don\u2019t get sick, health officials say. But those who do can become seriously ill, like Baron, and end up intubated and in intensive care. Baron\u2019s plight with Legionnaires\u2019 highlights the physical and emotional toil that the severe form of pneumonia takes on people, subjecting them to a recovery that can be arduous and painful.<\/p>\n

\u201cHard, long \u2014 it was very difficult,\u201d said Baron, 41, an insurance fraud investigator who works from her home in Maryland.<\/p>\n

In the Upper East Side outbreak, 85% of the people who contracted the illness required hospitalization, health officials said. Officials declined to say how many of the hospital patients have required treatment in intensive care, citing privacy. <\/p>\n

Legionnaires\u2019 is a severe form of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacterium. It spreads through airborne water droplets, not by drinking water or through person-to-person spread. Many of the outbreaks in New York City are caused by mist generated by the thousands of cooling towers on top of buildings, and health officials said they believe they have eliminated the source of the current outbreak \u2014 possibly a single cooling tower \u2014 though dozens of the rooftop machines have tested positive for the bacterium. <\/p>\n

An estimated 25,000 people develop Legionnaires\u2019 disease in the United States each year, according to the New York State Department of Health. An additional unknown number are infected with the Legionella bacterium and have mild symptoms or no illness at all. Cases occur sporadically, but outbreaks occur most often in the summer, when building owners operate their cooling towers to keep their tenants cool.<\/p>\n

Between 200 and 800 cases are reported each year in New York state, including New York City, according to the New York State Department of Health. <\/p>\n

Stay informed on bird flu, measles, and more across New York.<\/p>\n

Coming soon: The latest news on critical public health issues, all in one place. Get it in our free newsletter.<\/p>\n

Legionnaires\u2019 has been a perennial concern in New York City, and city officials passed legislation last fall in an effort seeking stricter testing requirements in cooling towers to prevent future outbreaks. An outbreak last summer in Central Harlem resulted in 118 confirmed cases and seven deaths; 92 patients were hospitalized, with 24 admitted to intensive care, according to one study.<\/p>\n

There is no vaccine.<\/p>\n

Speaker slams city Health Department\u2019s response<\/p>\n

The latest outbreak in the Upper East Side has drawn sharp criticism from City Council Speaker Julie Menin, whose district has been the center of infection. She and other officials say the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene was slow to respond. <\/p>\n

Chief among the council\u2019s concerns: The Health Department didn\u2019t \u201cproactively\u201d disinfect cooling towers and didn\u2019t do enough to communicate with residents about the outbreak. The City Council plans to hold an oversight hearing in September to \u201cexamine the administration\u2019s insufficient response to this outbreak.\u201d Menin said last week.<\/p>\n

She raised questions about whether the city has issued fines to cooling tower operators who didn\u2019t comply with the new law requiring monthly testing. The legislation took effect May 8. <\/p>\n

The Health Department said it collected approximately $680,000 in cooling tower-related fines for fiscal year 2025 to ensure operators are maintaining the devices to prevent the growth of Legionella. Officials declined to say how many fines have been collected since the new law took effect, adding that an inspection process includes issuing a summons, holding a hearing, and imposing a decision before a fine is collected.<\/p>\n

City health officials disputed Menin\u2019s accusation, saying the Health Department responded quickly to the outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemediation and enforcement strategies likely stopped the bacteria from spreading early and were critical to keeping more people from getting sick,\u201d department spokeswoman Chantal Gomez wrote in a statement, adding that health officials have held town hall meetings and press briefings and been updating the public daily.<\/p>\n

Health officials say they have not diagnosed a Legionnaires\u2019 case since July 15.<\/p>\n

Baron revisits her experience with Legionnaires\u2019\"AMelinda Baron (Courtesy of Melinda Baron) <\/p>\n

Baron fell ill around Memorial Day weekend in 2019, when she and her husband spent time with family at a hotel in central Florida. Around four days after relaxing in a hot tub there, she landed in a hospital in Georgia. Hot tubs are also a source of Legionella.<\/p>\n

Two groups are at high risk of getting Legionnaire\u2019s: people older than 50 and smokers. Baron was 34 and didn\u2019t smoke. Her heart rate was unusually high. She had to be hospitalized and put in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator. Seven days later, she was extubated and woke to a strange reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know for a minute where I was or what happened,\u201d Baron recalled. \u201cI knew I was in a hospital, because I could see the hospital bed in front of me, and there was a nurse to my left, and my mom was in the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother told her that the doctors believe she had most likely contracted Legionnaires\u2019 from the hotel hot tub, citing the incubation period. The incubation period for Legionnaires\u2019 ranges from two to 10 days but is usually five to six.<\/p>\n

Baron was discharged more than two weeks later. Her recovery was slow and a period of profound isolation. She was often short of breath and disoriented, and her body ached in unusual places.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been hard, but I\u2019m here, and I\u2019m thankful every single day that I\u2019m here, because it could have gone so much worse,\u201d said Baron. \u201cIt\u2019s a long recovery. But you can recover, because I\u2019m living proof of that, and I was at the brink of death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trenton Daniel<\/a> is a reporter covering public health in New York for Healthbeat. Contact Trenton at tdaniel@healthbeat.org or on the messaging app Signal<\/a> at trentondaniel.88.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat\u2019s free New York City newsletter here. Melinda Baron has a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":963278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,166314,228312,68306,387272,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-963277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-courtesy","tag-healthbeat","tag-legionnaires","tag-melinda-baron","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116994148386313464","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963277","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=963277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/963278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}