NYC Legionnaires’ outbreak linked to two city-run buildings, including Harlem Hospital

This 1978 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows Legionella pneumophila bacteria which are responsible for causing the pneumonic disease Legionnaires' disease. (Francis Chandler/CDC via AP, File)

NEW YORK — A New York City hospital and another city-run building were sources for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Harlem that killed seven people and sickened dozens of others, health officials announced Friday.

The New York City Health Department said bacteria from cooling towers atop Harlem Hospital and a nearby construction site where the city’s public health lab is located matched samples from some of the ill patients.

The agency said they consider the bacterial cluster officially over since the last day anyone reported symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease was three weeks ago on Aug. 9. Since the outbreak, seven people have died and 114 people have been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease, while six people are in the hospital.

People usually develop symptoms -- a cough, fever, headaches, muscle aches and shortness of breath -- between two days and two weeks after exposure to the bacteria, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

City health officials said all facilities in the affected area have cleaned and disinfected their cooling towers.

They also are considering a series of changes to try to prevent future outbreaks. Among them are requiring building owners to test for Legionella every 30 days instead of the current 90-days and increasing the fines for violations for failure to comply with local cooling tower regulations.

Friday’s announcement came a day after a seventh person, who died earlier this month, was deemed a part of cluster.

A number of survivors, meanwhile, have already sued over the outbreak.

Lawyers representing two workers at the impacted construction site have said they believe untreated rainwater from recent storms in the cooling towers led to the outbreak.

Ron Katter, a lawyer representing two other victims, said the Friday announcement was “too little, too late.”

“These deaths and sickness were preventable. Obviously, the city’s cooling tower laws are not effective,” he said, noting that Harlem Hospital was linked to a Legionnaires’ outbreak in 2021.

The health department declined to comment Friday on the litigation.

Legionnaires’ disease is a type of pneumonia that is caused by Legionella bacteria, which thrives in warm water and typically spreads through contaminated mist.

Medical investigators have linked past city outbreaks to public fountains, air conditioning systems, spas, showers and even the misters than keep fruit moist in supermarkets. People simply walking by can get infected inhaling the mist, which can travel up to a mile, under some conditions.

City and state officials in 2015 enacted regulations requiring building cooling towers be regularly registered, tested and inspected following a deadly outbreak in the city.

By Philip Marcelo And Bruce Shipkowski

Shipkowski reported from Trenton, New Jersey.