The first person has died from the Legionnaires’ disease cluster on the Upper East Side, health officials announced on Friday as the outbreak shows no signs of slowing.
“I am saddened to report that one person has died in connection with the Legionnaires’ disease community cluster on the Upper East Side,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister F. Martin said in a statement.
“My deepest condolences are with their loved ones, and out of respect to their personal privacy, we will not be releasing any additional information on the individual.”
A water cooling tower that was found to have traces of legionella pneumophila bacteria in New York City. Getty Images
The number of those stricken in the city continues to rise – with 67 cases reported as of 9 p.m. Thursday night, up from 63.
Currently, 12 people remain hospitalized in relation to the Upper East Side cluster, officials said.
The news comes after an Upper East Side cluster has sickened more than 63 people this month. Getty Images
Over 50 people have been hospitalized during this summer’s outbreak of the disease, according to the city’s Legionnaires’ tracking site.
All victims of the latest outbreak have been on the Upper East Side from the cluster in the Carnegie Hill and Yorkville neighborhoods.
The disease, which stems from Legionella bacteria that has been found in 76 cooling towers across Upper East Side neighborhoods and one on the Upper West Side, is a deadly type of pneumonia that can be treated with antibiotics if caught early.
All 76 towers that tested positive for the bacteria, including at the bustling Metropolitan Museum of Art and several at ritzy Upper East Side schools, were ordered to be disinfected and cleaned.
This year’s outbreak comes after over 250 cooling towers around the Big Apple were cited for issues relating to Legionella testing since last year — and more than half of those were in Manhattan.
Last year, there was an outbreak of the disease in Harlem that killed five people and sickened 114.
The upper Manhattan cluster, which stemmed from untreated rainwater atop city-owned Harlem Hospital, was the Big Apple’s deadliest Legionnaires’ outbreak in over a decade.