Author: aqualine@dmin

While the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in the South Bronx has been declared over by New York City officials a week ago, outbreaks of the bacterial respiratory disease has popped up in other areas across the country.

Read the full article here.

  • It is under diagnosed, and not as rare as you think.
  • Cooling towers, evaporative condensers, humidifiers, domestic/potable hot water systems, fountains, spas, and respiratory equipment are all systems that can harbor and create an active growing environment and support the spread of the Legionella.
  • Legionella cannot be passed between people. It is only transmitted to humans through airborne particles, i.e., inhaling or aspirating contaminated droplets from water systems that have not been properly cleaned and disinfected.
  • Each year, an estimated 10,000 to 18,000 people are infected with the Legionella bacteria in the United States.
  • Up to 30% of these cases prove to be fatal.
  • Legionnaire’s disease can cause cough, high fever, pneumonia, and death. It can be treated effectively with antibiotics.
  • It is preventable.

Download Aqualine’s brochure directly addressing Legionella and ways to combat it here.

2 dead from Legionnaires’ outbreak in the Bronx. 31 cases of the flu-like disease have been reported since mid-July: read more here.

Officials Seek Source of Legionnaires’ Outbreak in the Bronx: read more here.

…even as cases of Legionnaires’ have surged in recent years, many buildings have continued to operate under a largely unenforced and often vague patchwork of guidelines, or no rules at all.

“There’s no technical or scientific reason that anyone should ever get sick from the water in their buildings, and yet it happens because we don’t manage the water the way we should,” said William F. McCoy, a longtime Legionnaires’ disease researcher who helped write a new water-management standard for an industry association, the American Society for Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. The new standard, which lays out a process for buildings to develop water-management programs, was also endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Every building in New York City should have a water-management program to protect the occupants in the building from disease and injury,” he added. “But most buildings do not.”

legionella