BP Pushes Offense in Fighting #Legionnaires Outbreak

BP Pushes Offense in Fighting #Legionnaires Outbreak

BRONX, NEW YORK (BRONX NEWS)- Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is calling for new legislation that is proactive in preventing the spread of diseases such as Legionnaires Disease as New York City deals with the outbreak of the virus afflicting the city.

"It is encouraging that Mayor de Blasio has joined my call for new legislation in response to this current outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease," said Diaz. "As the scope and depth of the outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease in the South Bronx came into focus last week, I proposed new legislation that would allow the city to be proactive-and not reactive-to such outbreaks. Together, with Council Member Vanessa Gibson, we are introducing legislation creating an inspection mechanism for those systems where Legionnaires' Disease can thrive and to ensure appropriate follow-up inspections so that the disease does not return."

Legionnaire's Disease has made 86 people sick in the borough and claimed the lives of seven Bronxites since the outbreak was discovered. The disease is waterborne and cannot be passed from one person to another, transmitted by the inhalation of aerosolized water or soil contaminated with the bacteria. The bacteria to thrives in hot-water tanks, cooling towers and evaporative condensers of large air-conditioning systems like those commonly found in hotels and large office buildings.

The elderly, smokers and those with chronic lung disease are the most vulnerable to the disease.

Bronx Borough President Diaz believes the outbreak could have been prevented with more stringent inspections of cooling towers in air conditioning systems and Water systems in hotels, hospitals and nursing homes.

"It is the responsibility of government to protect the health and well-being of the public, and this common sense proposal will help do just that," said Borough President Diaz. "During the course of our actions fighting the Legionnaire's Disease outbreak in The Bronx, it has been revealed that there is no inspection mechanism for coolant systems, rooftop water tanks and other standing water infrastructure that could be a breeding ground for this disease and others. The city must create a new inspection system for these systems, just as we inspect other critical systems such as elevators."

#Legionnaires

Lawyers Sue over Legionnaires Diseases

3 Sickened by #Legionnaires Set to Sue

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK (BRONX NEWS) -Two men and a woman, who say that they caught Legionnaires’ Disease in Co-op City, are suing the housing company and the former managing agents in the northeast Bronx community.

The litigants are among eight individuals with Co-op City connections who contracted Legionnaires’ Disease late last year. 

An additional two Co-op City shareholders living in the same building, one in 2012 and the other in 2013, caught Legionnaires’ Disease, the city’s Health Department reported in March of last year.

Those suing include Ronald Hines Jr., a 29-year-old man from Co-op City, and Ralph Motta, a 44-year-old man who worked at the Bay Plaza shopping center, both of whom have been seriously debilitated. Neither Motta nor Hines has been able to work since being sickened by Legionnaires’ Disease in December, Bronx News has been told.

Catherine Durso, a Bronxite who visited Co-op City in October of last year, is also suing the Riverbay Corporation, Co-op City’s housing company, and Marion Scott Real Estate, Inc., the former managing agents for the nation’s largest housing complex.

Durso, like Hines and Motta, has had her lifestyle seriously compromised as a result of the severe form of pneumonia that she contracted, her attorneys claimed in a lawsuit that they filed on behalf of her and her husband.

The cooling tower at Co-op City was, late last year and early this year, contaminated by the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ Disease, the city’s Health Department officials said in January.

Since that time, Co-op City’s cooling tower has been decontaminated to the satisfaction of Health Department officials. The cooling tower at the Bay Plaza shopping center was also contaminated with the Legionnaires’ Disease bacteria in late 2014, before being decontaminated. 

Despite assurances from Health Department officials, a number of Co-op City’s civic activists remain concerned about Legionnaires’ Disease, insisting that there could be additional problems with the community’s domestic water system, which carries water to Co-op City’s apartment through a series of pumps and connections that go from one floor to another in individual buildings.

Health Department officials have stated that they are confident that the Co-op City cooling tower was the source of the Legionnaires’ Disease, which eight individuals associated with the community contracted in late-2014.

Legionnaires’ Disease is not communicable, meaning it is not spread from one individual to another. Rather, the disease is spread through mists, such as those that can come from contaminated showerhead or water faucets.