The NYC Health Department announced the third death Sunday from the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak.The outbreak began in late June, and the suspected cause is Legionella bacteria found in cooling towers.New cases have slowed to one per day since July 10, down from over eight daily in early July.<\/p>\n
Three people have died as of July 19, from the outbreak of Legionnaires\u2019 disease in New York City that began in late June, according to the NYC health department<\/a>. <\/p>\n Other data as of July 19 from the department includes:<\/p>\n 74 total cases8 currently hospitalized51 discharged12 not hospitalizedWhat is Legionnaires\u2019 disease?<\/p>\n \u201cLegionnaires\u2019 disease is a serious type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria,” per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. <\/p>\n The bacteria grows in hot water, and \u201cthe most common way for someone to get sick is by breathing in mist containing Legionella,\u201d CDC said.<\/p>\n It also noted, \u201cMost healthy people exposed to Legionella don\u2019t get sick.” People at risk are current or former smokers, people 50 or older and people with health issues such as cancer, chronic lung disease, diabetes, kidney failure, liver failure or a weak immune system.<\/p>\n Symptoms usually develop between two to 14 days after exposure to the bacteria or longer, and they include cough, fever, headaches, muscle aches, shortness of breath, confusion, diarrhea or nausea, according to the CDC. <\/p>\n The disease can be treated with antibiotics if caught early enough.<\/p>\n The cases in New York<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/a> said several hundred people in New York City are sickened with Legionnaires\u2019 disease each year, most commonly during the summer, \u201cwhen buildings use their rooftop cooling towers, which are part of their air-conditioning and refrigeration systems.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe towers continually recirculate warm water, creating an ideal environment for the Legionella bacteria to grow. They also include fans that can distribute water droplets into the air, and that mist, if it contains the bacteria, can sicken people who inhale it,\u201d The Times reported.<\/p>\n The current outbreak stemmed from the Upper East Side\u2019s Carnegie Hill and Yorkville neighborhoods, according to New York Post<\/a>. Legionella bacteria was \u201cfound in 76 cooling towers across Upper East Side neighborhoods and one on the Upper West Side.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the three deaths announced over the last three days, the diagnoses of Legionnaires\u2019 disease have slowed.<\/p>\n According to officials, \u201cAn average of one new case had been reported per day between July 10 and July 17, a sharp decline from the first week of July where an average of over eight new cases were being reported daily,\u201d per NY Post.<\/p>\n The NYC Health Department \u201cbelieves the source of the bacteria has likely been eliminated and that it will continue inspecting every cooling tower that tested positive for the bacteria,\u201d ABC News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NYC Health Department announced the third death Sunday from the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak.The outbreak began in late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60,12260],"class_list":["post-559549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news-feed-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}