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.”