The largest outbreak of legionnaires' disease in New York in less than three years has claimed its fourth victim, health authorities said. Reinforcing to the concerns among some residents and elected officials, that the city is not adequately prepared to combat motion sickness. Most cases last year were in the Bronx and Brooklyn, they had the highest portion of people living in the level of poverty and has the most registered cases. The health authorities concluded that the high tendency of this disease can be developed on poor areas.
The entire case causes a feeling of fear on sidewalks and in shopping centers and in health. City officials are making their steps on how they can prevent this disease to spread, considering the fact that, it has increased in recent years across the country. Elected officials calling for a law, that cooling towers should be examined and analyzed for legionnaires bacteria's present. Some residents of New York, for fear that the tap water is contaminated, they only drink bottled water.
Health researchers are investigating step by step to those who have been positive for Legionnaires and effort tracing the origin of the epidemic. Last Saturday, the Concourse Plaza, a shopping center east of Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York City, has reports that the inhabitants of the city have not checked regularly their cooling towers and do not move fast enough to know that they might be infected by the bacteria. Concourse Plaza is one of the five buildings in a 20 square block area in the South Bronx, where the cooling towers are tested and examine by the health authorities, they found out that the building is positive in Legionella bacteria. Other buildings that are also positive for Legionnaires are the Verizon office building, Streamline plastic, Halle Opera House, Lincoln Center and the medical mental health building.
Legionnaires' disease is caused by exposure to Legionella bacteria; in most cases, people with the bacteria are exposed in inhaling contaminated cooling towers, whirlpools, showers and taps or water sprays. Municipal authorities assured that the mounting casualties in New York, are just an effect of the incubation period of the disease (10 days as long as the spread of contaminants). They said that the four who died were all older and with pre-existing medical conditions.