A Legionnaires' disease outbreak on Manhattan's Upper East Side has grown more deadly, with health officials confirming that a fourth person has now died from the lung infection. What city health officials had said only a week earlier was trending in the right direction has instead become one of the more serious clusters the neighborhood has seen in recent years, and the toll has continued to climb.
In all, a total of 76 people have been sickened in the outbreak, and seven of them remain hospitalized. All of the victims lived in the three zip codes where cooling towers have now been tested, an area covering the 10128, 10028 and 10075 sections of the Upper East Side where investigators have focused their search for the source. Legionnaires' disease is often spread through cooling towers.
One of those who died was an 88-year-old retired businessman and Air Force veteran. According to his family's attorney, his wife found him feverish by an open window on July 2 inside their Yorkville apartment. He spent two weeks in intensive care, intubated and on a respirator, receiving bedside dialysis and intravenous antibiotics, before he died on Friday, even as, his lawyer said, he had been very much planning for his future.
The man's family attorney said the building where the veteran lived had itself tested negative for Legionella, and that the family plans to sue the owner of the cooling tower identified as the source of the outbreak, with a formal announcement of the lawsuit expected. He placed the blame squarely on the property owner, saying they had failed to maintain their cooling tower, a lapse he argued had proved fatal. The city council speaker, meanwhile, was preparing to unveil new actions the council intends to take in response to the outbreak.
City health officials said they believe they have now brought the outbreak under control. Through what they described as an aggressive strategy of early testing, enforcement and remediation, they said they had eliminated the source of exposure. The cooling towers across the affected zip codes were tested as part of that effort to shut down the spread.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani sought to reassure New Yorkers even as the death toll rose, saying the water in the area remains safe to drink, bathe in, shower with and cook with. He also said it was safe to keep using air conditioners, an important message in the middle of summer for residents worried about how the bacteria spreads.
Legionnaires' symptoms can appear up to 14 days after exposure, and the health department is urging anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms in the affected area to seek medical attention promptly. Officials say early treatment is critical, and they continue to monitor the neighborhood closely as the last of the hospitalized patients recover.