(Bloomberg) – Six people have now died of the outbreak of Legionnaires in the central Harlem in New York and the other seven are currently hospitalized with the condition, the city’s health department said.
On Thursday, the health department published updated numbers and stated that there are now 111 confirmed cases. He said that the last death was monitored by the detection of the disease by monitoring the exposure routes and the last diagnosis was 13th August.
Health officials said 12 cooling towers tested the culture positive for living bacteria Legionel in 10 buildings. The affected properties include the Clinic of Hospital and Sexual Health, which are led by the city.
The outbreaks of legionnaires in New York are usually caused by cooling towers that emit fog into the air because they reduce temperatures for large buildings.
The outbreak was identified in the central Harlem at the end of July after a handful of people represented symptoms similar to pneumonia and tested for this disease. According to the NYC medical department, the level of infection has decreased in recent weeks. The ministry spokesman said the cluster investigation is underway.
The city recorded its largest focus in 2015 in the Bronx, when the clump of cases was connected to a single tower. More than 130 people were sick and 16 people died, which led to the city to adopt new rules for testing cooling towers.
This disease can cause a serious form of pneumonia, which can lead to lung and death failure. Healthy people usually get sick after breathing bacteria, but according to US centers for control and prevention of diseases, older people with specific health conditions or current and former smokers are most at risk.
About one of every 10 infections results in death. Most infections can be treated with an antibiotic.
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(Tagstotranslate) Legionnaire disease
