Bronx Residents Anxious After 4th Death From Legionnaires’ Disease

The death toll from the largest outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York City in at least three years rose on Saturday
as city officials said that the illness had killed a fourth person.

The number of cases climbed to 65, including 55 who had been hospitalized. And tests of all the cooling towers in the affected area in the southern part of the Bronx, which are thought to be the source of the bacteria, found the exteriors of five buildings to be contaminated.

The spread of the disease has provoked a sense of anxiety on sidewalks and in shopping malls. Some Bronx residents, fearful that their tap water was contaminated, have taken to drinking bottled water. Elected officials are calling for legislation requiring that cooling towers be inspected for legionella bacteria. And health investigators are tracing the steps of those who have been sickened, trying to contain the outbreak.

Still, city officials have sought to tamp down residents’ concerns, assuring New Yorkers that the city’s tap water poses no risk. They have said the four people who died were all older, and had pre-existing medical conditions.

But for residents and local leaders, the outbreak has raised questions about the city’s ability to defend itself against a disease whose prevalence here has more than tripled in the last 10 years. The number of cases of Legionnaires’ disease citywide rose to 225 in 2014, from 73 in 2004. There were 301 cases in 2013.

Most of the cases last year were in the Bronx and Brooklyn, the boroughs with the highest percentages of people living below the poverty level citywide, reflecting a tendency for the disease to be concentrated in poor areas.