"Legionnaire’s Disease Sickens 11 In Upper Manhattan" - Zoe Greenberg
An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease has sickened 11 people in Upper Manhattan, ten of whom have been hospitalized, according to city health officials. Legionnaires’ disease is a serious type of pneumonia commonly caused by breathing in water vapor that contains Legionella bacteria. The disease is most common in the summer because the bacteria thrives in warm water, said Waleed Javaid, MD, senior faculty of medicine and infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Some of the most common culprits in the spread of the disease are cooling towers, humidifiers, hot water tanks and condensers in large air-conditioning units. Whirlpool spas and hot tubs are also sometimes sources of the disease. City health officials said this is the year’s first “cluster” outbreak, in which people across different buildings have fallen ill. Every year, between 200 and 500 people are diagnosed with the disease in the city.
- Waleed Javaid, MD, Senior Faculty, Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, Infection Prevention and Control, Mount Sinai Downtown