Two Legionnaires cases reported; unrelated to Bronx outbreak
Legionnaires' disease is a severe form of pneumonia caused by a type of bacteria called Legionella, according to the CDC. This colorized scanning electron micrograph with moderately-high magnification depicts a large grouping of Gram-negative Legionella pneumophila bacteria. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / CDC
Two more people have caught Legionnaires' disease, but New York City officials said Wednesday the infections are unrelated to this summer's outbreak in the South Bronx that killed 12 and sickened 116 others.
Nor are the latest cases connected to each other, said Ishanee Parikh, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose health department called the summer flare-up the worst ever of the bacterial pneumonia in New York City history.
Levi Fishman, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said one of the cases involved a woman from New Jersey and the other a patient who may have acquired the infection at a hospital.
A state health department spokesman, James Plastiras, said a patient at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's Weill Cornell campus has a suspected diagnosis of Legionnaires' disease. The department is working with the hospital to identify its source, Plastiras said.
The July-August outbreak that sickened 128 was later traced to a South Bronx boutique hotel, and city Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said last week that the flare-up was over. Still, hundreds of people come down with Legionnaires' every year in more isolated cases.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
