NYC Declares Legionnaires' Outbreak Over After 92 Cases, Seven Deaths

New York City's health department declared Friday that a Legionnaires' disease outbreak on the Upper East Side has ended, following two weeks without any new cases linked to the cluster.

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Inspectors traced the outbreak to an unregistered cooling tower at a building on East 83rd Street, which was found to have eleven violations, according to health department records.

The outbreak was linked to 92 confirmed cases and seven deaths, officials said, making it one of the more serious Legionnaires' clusters in the city in recent years.

• The cooling tower has since been remediated and brought into compliance
• No new cases have been reported in the past two weeks
• City health officials say the risk to residents has returned to baseline levels

Renewed scrutiny of cooling towers

The outbreak has prompted renewed calls for stricter inspection and registration requirements for cooling towers across the city, according to public health advocates.

Legionnaires' disease, a severe form of pneumonia caused by inhaling contaminated water droplets, disproportionately affects older adults and those with weakened immune systems, health officials noted.

City officials said they would review current cooling tower regulations in the coming months to prevent similar outbreaks in the future.