An outbreak of pneumonia caused by the bacteria Legionella,\u00a0is spreading across the Upper East Side, officials said Tuesday, but the risk to\u00a0Long Islanders remains low.<\/p>\n
The New York City\u00a0Health Department<\/a> is investigating a community cluster of Legionnaires’ disease in the Upper East Side neighborhoods of Carnegie Hill and Yorkville, from Central Park to the East River. As of Monday,\u00a0 there were 60 patient cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn NYC we have hundreds of cases of Legionnaires every year,\u201d city officials said. \u201cAlmost all of those hundreds of cases of Legionnaires are sporadic, meaning we don’t find patterns or one source.\u201d <\/p>\n Cooling towers in buildings, which extract extra heat from large buildings using water, are\u00a0\u00a0the suspected sources of the infection. Water droplets or mist that contain the bacteria and is expelled from the towers can spread the illness if inhaled, officials said. <\/p>\n There have been 183 cooling towers sampled by the city. . Of these, 76 have been ordered to be cleaned and disinfected based on initial positive test results.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are taking the most aggressive posture we have ever taken regarding a cooling tower investigation,” city officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But for people who are not in areas with cooling towers, the risk is relatively small.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who don\u2019t live or work in the vicinity where the outbreak is taking place are really at low risk,\u201d Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, said. \u201cFor the vast majority of the people who live in the city or on Long Island, the risk is very small.\u201d<\/p>\n Here’s what you should know about the bacteria.<\/p>\n What are the symptoms of Legionnaires?<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as a person develops symptoms and is living near or working in a place that has a cooling tower, they should immediately go to their provider and get evaluated,\u201d El-Sadr said. “The good news is that it\u2019s easy to diagnose, and it\u2019s easy to treat.\u201d<\/p>\n