The New York City Health Department on Thursday disclosed the locations of 10 Central Harlem buildings where cooling towers tested positive for live Legionella bacteria, but said investigators have not yet determined whether any of them caused the neighborhood’s Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that has so far claimed four lives.
According to city health officials, eleven of the 12 contaminated cooling towers have been cleaned, and the final tower’s remediation is due Friday.
Most of the addresses are concentrated within a few blocks of West 124th and 125th Streets, including BRP Companies, Lafayette Development LLC at 2239 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd.; BVK at 215 W. 125th St.; Commonwealth Local Development at 301 W. 124th St.; Harlem Center Condo at 317 Lenox Ave.; and Wharton Properties at 100 W. 125th St.
The city Health Department’s Central Harlem Sexual Health Clinic on 5th Avenue, NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem on Lenox Avenue, and the New York Hotel Trades Council Harlem Health Center on Morningside Avenue are also in the cluster.
Two other contaminated towers, the City College Marshak Science Building on Convent Avenue and the NYC Economic Development Corporation’s building on West 137th Street, are farther from the core cluster.
When asked during a press briefing on Thursday whether the city failed to monitor cooling towers in its own buildings, Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse said that while it is the Health Department’s responsibility to regulate and inspect buildings throughout the five boroughs, including their own, even with regular testing every 90 days, Legionella bacteria can still grow during warm weather.
“Prevention efforts are incredibly important, but they don’t always prevent 100 percent of Legionnaires’ disease like what we’ve seen in this cluster,” she said.
She added that the investigation is ongoing, and officials cannot yet determine whether exposure at hospitals or other locations posed a greater risk to those who contracted the illness.
“I would not draw any conclusions yet about any additional or specific exposures,” she said. “The whole goal of our investigation is to both make sure that New Yorkers who are at risk in the zone of the investigation, the five zip codes in Central Harlem, know that they’re at risk and seek care immediately, while at the same time, we urgently do the antibacterial treatment of the cooling towers. So I can’t draw any conclusions yet about more risks in certain zip codes than others until the investigation is complete.”
Fourth death confirmed
Case numbers have started to decline in recent days, but since July 25, 99 people have been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease in the affected ZIP codes — 10027, 10030, 10035, 10037, and 10039 — four have died, and 17 remain hospitalized.
“The good news is that new cases have begun to decline, which indicates that the sources of the bacteria have been contained, “Dr. Morse said. “Our expert inspectors will continue to work with building owners to ensure full compliance.
Morse stressed that anyone who lives or works in the identified ZIP codes and contracts flu-like symptoms — especially those over 50 or with preexisting health issues – should contact a health care provider as soon as possible.
The decision to release the buildings’ locations came after residents pressed for greater transparency in the investigation during a virtual town hall on Monday.
The city’s ongoing investigation into the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak involves both rapid PCR testing and longer culture testing of cooling towers in the five zip codes. The initial PCR tests can detect traces of Legionella bacteria, whether alive or dead, and towers that test positive must be chemically treated within 24 hours.
The city’s Public Health Laboratory also runs culture tests, which take about two weeks and are considered the gold standard because they confirm the presence of Legionella pneumophila, the strain that causes illness. Towers with positive culture results must be fully cleaned and disinfected.
The Health Department said Thursday it is still working to determine the outbreak’s source. Officials are comparing DNA from bacteria found in cooling towers with samples taken from patients. Genetic matches could link a specific tower to the illnesses, they said.
“Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by this cluster of Legionnaires, in particular the friends and loved ones of the three New Yorkers we lost to this disease,” said Mayor Eric Adams. “As of today, 11 of the 12 cooling towers in Central Harlem that tested positive for Legionella bacteria have completed remediation, and by tomorrow, all towers will have completed remediation. New Yorkers should know the air is safe to breathe, and we are seeing declining numbers of new cases each day.”
