Yankee Stadium cooling tower tests positive for Legionella bacteria
Legionella bacteria causes Legionnaires' disease, a type of pneumonia.
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A cooling tower at Yankee Stadium is one of 10 in the South Bronx that has been ordered for disinfecting on Monday after testing positive for Legionella bacteria. (File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI)
Sept. 14 (UPI) -- A cooling tower at Yankee Stadium is one of 10 in the South Bronx that has been ordered for disinfecting on Monday after testing positive for Legionella bacteria.
The cleaning order by the New York City Health Department follows an outbreak of a new Legionnaires' cluster in the South Bronx. A tower at Lincoln Hospital and another at Boricua College Bronx Campus have also been flagged for cleaning.
The Lincoln Hospital cooling tower has been drained, cleaned and disinfected as of Sunday evening, NYC Health + Hospitals said Sunday.
The 10 towers that are to be cleaned have tested positive for Legionella in PCR tests.
"The one limitation, the one thing wrong with the PCR test, is it can't tell us if the DNA is live legionella or dead," Dr. Alister Martin, NYC Health Commissioner, said during a town hall on Sunday. "And so, some of those 10 might have live bacteria, some of those might have dead bacteria, and it's only the live bacteria that can get you sick."
Legionella bacteria causes Legionnaires' disease, a type of pneumonia.
Martin explained that people who have been inside a building with a cooling tower that has tested positive have not necessarily been exposed to the bacteria.
"In essence, the air inside the building is not different from anywhere else in the neighborhood," Martin said.
New York City health officials announced the first fatality related to the cluster on Friday. Health officials were investigating the origin of the cluster and have tested 24 cooling towers so far.
Nine people have been diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease from this outbreak and three remain hospitalized.
Of the 10 cooling towers that tested positive for Legionella bacteria, eight were in compliance with the 31-day testing requirement the city instituted in May. Two towers, those at 820 Concourse Village West and 1265 Franklin Ave., were not in compliance with providing testing information.
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