A second person has died in a Legionnaires' disease outbreak in New York City, according to a report by ABC News. The development marks a serious escalation in a public health situation that officials are actively investigating.
Legionnaires' disease is a severe form of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria. The bacteria typically spread through water systems, including cooling towers, hot tubs, and large plumbing systems. People become infected by breathing in small water droplets that contain the bacteria. The disease does not spread from person to person.
The illness tends to hit hardest in people who are older, smoke, or have weakened immune systems. Symptoms include cough, shortness of breath, fever, muscle aches, and headaches. Most healthy people who are exposed to the bacteria do not get sick, but for those who do, hospitalization is common and the disease can be fatal if not treated promptly with antibiotics.
New York City has seen Legionnaires' outbreaks before. The city has regulations requiring buildings with cooling towers to register, inspect, and disinfect those systems regularly. Those rules were put in place following a 2015 outbreak in the South Bronx that killed 12 people and sickened more than 120. Whether cooling towers are connected to the current outbreak has not been confirmed in available reporting.
Officials have not yet publicly named a specific source building or water system connected to the current cluster. Investigations into Legionnaires' outbreaks typically involve environmental sampling of water systems in areas where patients spent time in the days before they became ill. That process can take time and does not always produce a confirmed source.
The deaths bring renewed attention to the risks posed by building water infrastructure in a dense urban environment. Health departments generally urge anyone experiencing symptoms consistent with Legionnaires' disease, particularly a severe cough with high fever, to seek medical attention promptly and inform their doctor about possible exposures.
The investigation is ongoing.
