Legionnaires’ disease outbreak: Guggenheim Museum among 31 UES buildings with cooling towers that contained illness-causing bacteria
New York City health officials have identified 31 buildings on the Upper East Side, including the Guggenheim Museum, with cooling towers testing positive for Legionella bacteria. While 46 people have been sickened in the outbreak, no deaths have been reported and remediation efforts are underway.
Why it matters
Legionnaires' disease outbreaks in dense urban environments pose significant public health risks, necessitating rapid identification and remediation of infrastructure.
The Guggenheim Museum, Asphalt Green’s Upper East Side campus, a Whole Foods Market and Trevor Day School are among 31 buildings whose cooling towers preliminarily tested positive for Legionella bacteria amid a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that has sickened 46 people, city health officials said Friday.
The city Health Department released the addresses Friday evening, hours after announcing that 19 of the affected cooling towers had already been cleaned and disinfected. The remaining 12 were ordered to complete remediation by Saturday.
Officials cautioned that the preliminary PCR screening results do not establish that any of the buildings contributed to the outbreak or that live bacteria were present in their cooling towers.
The list could also grow. Laboratory testing of samples collected from 183 cooling towers remains underway, and the department said additional positive PCR results could be reported over the weekend.
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