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We're a long way from the bliss of the Knicks-in-five/Pride month/beaches-opening June, as July has seen apocalyptic wildfire smoke, a diarrhea parasite, and a deadly airborne lung bacteria.
Five New Yorkers have died this month from an Upper East Side cluster of Legionnaires' disease, a serious respiratory infection that comes from bacteria that live in the warm, stagnant water found in rooftop HVAC cooling towers. Because testing for the bacteria is enforced by the City Health Department, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his Health Commissioner Alister Martin are under intense scrutiny as the City rushes to inspect, test, and treat contaminated buildings.
The disease presents like the flu (fever, chills, coughing) and is treatable with antibiotics, but it can be dangerous for older people and people with compromised immunity. Most people exposed to it are fine, and it's not contagious between humans. You can only get it by breathing in the invisible bacteria-contaminated mist that could be emanating from the built environment.
For reasons that likely have to do with climate change, Legionnaires' cases are on the rise in the U.S. this century. In New York City, it's becoming an annual threat. Last summer, an outbreak in Harlem infected more than 100 people and killed seven.
This summer, an underpaid, understaffed group of about 35 Health Department water ecologists has been going from roof to roof to inspect the cooling towers and collect samples, Gothamist reported. The outbreak seems to have been contained, Martin said Wednesday. There have been a total of 82 documented cases so far; people are still sick and hospitalized, but there have been no new cases reported for a week. The Health Department found and addressed live bacteria in cooling towers at 33 buildings on the Upper East Side, including the Guggenheim Museum.