Yankee Stadium is one of nearly a dozen locations across New York City testing positive for bacteria behind a fatal lung disease.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Monday it has ordered 10 cooling towers in the Bronx to be cleaned and disinfected after preliminary testing found the presence of legionella bacteria, which causes the respiratory illness Legionnaires’ disease.
One of the named locations was 1 E 161st St, the Yankees’ home stadium that holds nearly 50,000 people at a time. Another tower is at Lincoln Hospital, which serves 600,000 residents each year.
Spokespeople for NYC Health + Hospitals and the Yankees said both towers have been drained, cleaned and disinfected as of Sunday. The baseball team also said its most recent Legionella test on August 20 was negative and that no cases in the current cluster have been associated with the stadium.
Health officials said it’s unclear if any of the towers that tested positive played a role in the city’s current Legionnaires’ outbreak, which has so far included nine cases and one death as of September 10.
Of those hospitalized, four have been discharged and three remain in care.
Health Commissioner Alister Martin said being inside a building with a cooling tower that tested positive does not expose people to the tower’s water.
‘In essence, the air inside the building is not different from anywhere else in the neighborhood,’ he said.
Yankee Stadium is one of 10 NYC locations housing cooling towers that tested positive for legionella bacteria, which causes Legionnaires’ disease
Zip codes in the cluster are 10451 and 10456, which include parts of the Morrisania and Melrose neighborhoods.
Martin said anyone who lives, works or has visited the affected areas since late August and has developed symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath or muscle aches to seek medical care immediately.
The towers were tested as part of a health department investigation into the current Legionnaires’ cluster and included water samples from 24 towers.
Legionnaires’ disease is caused by the Legionella bacteria that thrives in warm and damp locations. It can become airborne in water vapor and then be breathed in by people, potentially triggering an infection.
Common sources for the Legionella bacteria include centralized air conditioning systems, hot tubs, water fountains and large building plumbing systems.
The disease does not spread from person to person.
Infected patients initially suffer from a headache, muscle aches and fever, before the disease also triggers a cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, confusion or other symptoms.
In severe cases, patients can suffer from severe pneumonia and the potentially fatal complication sepsis, when the bacteria spread to the blood.
Doctors can treat the disease using antibiotics but note these drugs are most effective during the early stages of the disease and before its spread in the body.
Those who are over 50 years old, smoke or vape, have a chronic lung disease or a weakened immune system are at higher risk from the bacteria.
Cooling towers and air conditioning units are seen in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. Health officials said being inside a building with a cooling tower that tested positive does not expose people to the tower’s water
Nationwide, infections with Legionnaires’ disease have soared over the last two decades, rising from about 1,100 cases in 2000 to more than 8,000 today.
New York City records between 300 and 600 cases every year, according to data from the city’s health department.
The city has dealt with multiple recent Legionnaires’ outbreaks. Earlier this summer, a cluster of cases in Manhattan’s Upper East Side Neighborhood resulted in 94 positive cases and 11 deaths.
In that outbreak, the city said 59 cooling towers at 58 buildings tested positive for live legionella bacteria. All of those towers were cleaned and disinfected.
In August last year, seven people died and 114 people were sickened by a Legionnaires’ outbreak in Harlem. Ninety people were hospitalized.
Health officials linked that outbreak to the bacteria in 12 cooling towers across 10 buildings, including a city-run hospital and sexual health clinic.
