Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2015 19:53:10 GMT -4
Be Aware Of This Problem if your in the Bronx or live around this area.
As the number of people sickened in an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the South Bronx climbed to 71 on Sunday, health officials were still piecing together where the illness, a form of pneumonia spread through airborne water droplets, might have originated.
Four of the people stricken with Legionnaires’ have died from the disease, which can spread when people breathe in water droplets from rooftop cooling towers, fountains or even showers connected to water systems where legionella bacteria thrive. Five cooling towers in the South Bronx have tested positive for legionella — including towers at the Opera House Hotel and the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center — but health investigators have not determined which is responsible for the outbreak.
The outbreak has prompted calls for more regular inspections of cooling towers.
Shoppers on Saturday at Concourse Plaza, one of five locations in the Bronx where cooling towers tested positive for legionella bacteria.Bronx Residents Anxious After 4th Death From Legionnaires’ DiseaseAUG. 1, 2015
Third Person Dies of Legionnaires’ Disease in the BronxJULY 31, 2015
Legionnaires’ Disease Sickens 31, 2 Fatally, in the South BronxJULY 29, 2015
Officials are confident that the disease spread from one or more of the five cooling towers, not from another water source, because interviews with the patients have shown that the only thing those who fell sick had in common was living and working in the same few South Bronx neighborhoods.
Given that, “it would not have been possible for them to all be infected from one Jacuzzi or one shower,” said Dr. Jay Varma, the deputy commissioner for disease control at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “It may take a few weeks for us to do the lab detective work that’s needed to conclusively say whether it was one cooling tower or all five.”
He said that none of the people who became ill had stayed at the Opera House Hotel as guests, nor had any of them been patients or staff members at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center.
There are likely to be additional cases in the coming days as more people who were exposed to legionella before the cooling towers were disinfected fall ill, he said.
The other towers that tested positive are on a Verizon office building, Streamline Plastics Company and the Concourse Plaza, a mall near Yankee Stadium. All five have been flushed with bleach, followed by fresh water.
“Legionella love water systems, particularly old, clunky and corroded ones that are not well maintained and have a little sludge,” said Dr. Glenn Morris, the director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida and a specialist in infectious disease. “Cooling towers in particular are a great place to live from a legionella’s perspective, because it’s nice, warm water year-round.”
But experts said cooling towers account for a relatively small proportion of Legionnaires’ outbreaks. More often, they said, the disease spreads through the systems that supply water for drinking, cooking and bathing.
Legionnaires’ disease was first named after a 1976 outbreak at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. The largest outbreak was in Spain in 2001, when more than 400 people became ill. Those episodes, too, were linked to contaminated cooling towers.
The current outbreak, in which legionella was found in five out of the 17 cooling towers officials tested, highlighted how haphazard efforts to prevent a well-known disease can be in hotels, hospitals and other large buildings. The complexity of their water systems, which ferry water around the building for purposes as varied as drinking, showering, powering decorative fountains and air-conditioning, make them among the types of buildings most likely to cause outbreaks.
Yet even as cases of Legionnaires’ have surged in recent years, many buildings have continued to operate under a largely unenforced and often vague patchwork of guidelines, or no rules at all.
“There’s no technical or scientific reason that anyone should ever get sick from the water in their buildings, and yet it happens because we don’t manage the water the way we should,” said William F. McCoy, a longtime Legionnaires’ disease researcher who helped write a new water-management standard for an industry association, the American Society for Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. The new standard, which lays out a process for buildings to develop water-management programs, was also endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Every building in New York City should have a water-management program to protect the occupants in the building from disease and injury,” he added. “But most buildings do not.”
Mr. McCoy said hospitals, hotels, large office buildings and universities were gradually becoming more aware of the best ways to guard against legionella in their water systems.
Hospitals can look to several sets of guidelines, including recommendations published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1998, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in 2001 and the C.D.C. in 2003, but they offer little consensus on how often, or even whether, water should be tested for legionella; when systems should be disinfected; or the best way to get rid of the bacteria after an outbreak.
A spokesman for the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, Ian Michaels, said Lincoln cleans and disinfects its cooling towers every six months.
Candy
As the number of people sickened in an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the South Bronx climbed to 71 on Sunday, health officials were still piecing together where the illness, a form of pneumonia spread through airborne water droplets, might have originated.
Four of the people stricken with Legionnaires’ have died from the disease, which can spread when people breathe in water droplets from rooftop cooling towers, fountains or even showers connected to water systems where legionella bacteria thrive. Five cooling towers in the South Bronx have tested positive for legionella — including towers at the Opera House Hotel and the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center — but health investigators have not determined which is responsible for the outbreak.
The outbreak has prompted calls for more regular inspections of cooling towers.
Shoppers on Saturday at Concourse Plaza, one of five locations in the Bronx where cooling towers tested positive for legionella bacteria.Bronx Residents Anxious After 4th Death From Legionnaires’ DiseaseAUG. 1, 2015
Third Person Dies of Legionnaires’ Disease in the BronxJULY 31, 2015
Legionnaires’ Disease Sickens 31, 2 Fatally, in the South BronxJULY 29, 2015
Officials are confident that the disease spread from one or more of the five cooling towers, not from another water source, because interviews with the patients have shown that the only thing those who fell sick had in common was living and working in the same few South Bronx neighborhoods.
Given that, “it would not have been possible for them to all be infected from one Jacuzzi or one shower,” said Dr. Jay Varma, the deputy commissioner for disease control at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “It may take a few weeks for us to do the lab detective work that’s needed to conclusively say whether it was one cooling tower or all five.”
He said that none of the people who became ill had stayed at the Opera House Hotel as guests, nor had any of them been patients or staff members at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center.
There are likely to be additional cases in the coming days as more people who were exposed to legionella before the cooling towers were disinfected fall ill, he said.
The other towers that tested positive are on a Verizon office building, Streamline Plastics Company and the Concourse Plaza, a mall near Yankee Stadium. All five have been flushed with bleach, followed by fresh water.
“Legionella love water systems, particularly old, clunky and corroded ones that are not well maintained and have a little sludge,” said Dr. Glenn Morris, the director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida and a specialist in infectious disease. “Cooling towers in particular are a great place to live from a legionella’s perspective, because it’s nice, warm water year-round.”
But experts said cooling towers account for a relatively small proportion of Legionnaires’ outbreaks. More often, they said, the disease spreads through the systems that supply water for drinking, cooking and bathing.
Legionnaires’ disease was first named after a 1976 outbreak at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. The largest outbreak was in Spain in 2001, when more than 400 people became ill. Those episodes, too, were linked to contaminated cooling towers.
The current outbreak, in which legionella was found in five out of the 17 cooling towers officials tested, highlighted how haphazard efforts to prevent a well-known disease can be in hotels, hospitals and other large buildings. The complexity of their water systems, which ferry water around the building for purposes as varied as drinking, showering, powering decorative fountains and air-conditioning, make them among the types of buildings most likely to cause outbreaks.
Yet even as cases of Legionnaires’ have surged in recent years, many buildings have continued to operate under a largely unenforced and often vague patchwork of guidelines, or no rules at all.
“There’s no technical or scientific reason that anyone should ever get sick from the water in their buildings, and yet it happens because we don’t manage the water the way we should,” said William F. McCoy, a longtime Legionnaires’ disease researcher who helped write a new water-management standard for an industry association, the American Society for Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. The new standard, which lays out a process for buildings to develop water-management programs, was also endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Every building in New York City should have a water-management program to protect the occupants in the building from disease and injury,” he added. “But most buildings do not.”
Mr. McCoy said hospitals, hotels, large office buildings and universities were gradually becoming more aware of the best ways to guard against legionella in their water systems.
Hospitals can look to several sets of guidelines, including recommendations published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1998, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in 2001 and the C.D.C. in 2003, but they offer little consensus on how often, or even whether, water should be tested for legionella; when systems should be disinfected; or the best way to get rid of the bacteria after an outbreak.
A spokesman for the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, Ian Michaels, said Lincoln cleans and disinfects its cooling towers every six months.
Candy
