Legionnaires’ outbreak rocks New York as experts warn of rising climate threat

This 1978 electron microscope image made available by the CDC shows the Legionella pneumophila bacterium, responsible for causing legionnaires' disease. Photograph: Francis Chandler/CDC/AP View image in fullscreen This 1978 electron microscope image made available by the CDC shows the Legionella pneumophila bacterium, responsible for causing legionnaires' disease. Photograph: Francis Chandler/CDC/AP Legionnaires’ outbreak rocks New York as experts warn of rising climate threat Officials say climate crisis ‘worsening our exposure’ to bacteria as at least 28 people sickened in Manhattan A New York outbreak of legionnaires’ disease, a rare but severe form of pneumonia, highlights the microbe’s growing and disproportionate impacts in a warming climate. At least 28 people have been sickened in an outbreak on the Upper East Side, a wealthy neighborhood between Central Park and the East River in Manhattan. Health department officials, seeking to stop the outbreak, have sampled water from nearly 160 building cooling towers to test for the bacteria. “This is now a subtropical climate,” said Dr Alister Martin, the commissioner of the New York City health department. “It is absolutely true that climate change is worsening our exposure and increasing the propensity for legionnaires’ disease clusters like we’re seeing today.” Martin said the city has taken an “aggressive” approach to the outbreak, even as the chances of developing legionnaires’ disease are “extremely, extremely rare”. Martin revealed to the Guardian that he signed orders for at least 19 buildings to drain, clean and disinfect cooling towers, which are part of large buildings’ heating and cooling systems. These were described as “buildings of interest” by another official, who said the city would still need to conduct extensive tests to understand which building may have been responsible for the outbreak. Legionnaires’ disease is a severe illness caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila, a microorganism ubiquitous in warm water environments. Most of the time, this bacterium is harmless – except when inhaled in vapors and mists. When that happens, it can cause a spectrum of illness from the relatively mild, including Pontiac fever to Legionnaires’ disease, a multi-system pneumonia which causes cough, fever, headaches, muscle aches and shortness of breath. Although legionnaires’ affects less than 3 people per 100,000 , as many as 10% of people diagnosed with legionnaires’ will die. Legionella got its name from the first group of people epidemiologists found sickened: a group of American Legion veterans who gathered in Philadelphia in 1976 . Since then, the bacterium has been the cause of a rising number of outbreaks globally – from New York to Melbourne , and the Lombardy region of Italy to Lincoln, New Hampshire . Typical urban conditions such as ageing infrastructure, spotty maintenance and populations with chronic conditions can spur outbreaks. “You’re walking down the street minding yo