Guggenheim Museum Among Buildings with Legionella Concerns
The Guggenheim Museum is one of 31 buildings on the Upper East Side found to have water-cooling towers testing positive for Legionella, the bacteria linked to Legionnaires’ disease. This comes as part of an ongoing investigation by the city into an outbreak of severe pneumonia, as reported by the health department on Friday.
Located at 1071 Fifth Ave., the Guggenheim, along with the owners of 18 other sites, has already cleaned and disinfected its cooling towers to eliminate the bacteria, according to health officials.
Dr. Alister Martin, the city’s health commissioner, indicated during a press briefing that the remaining affected cooling towers will undergo remediation by Saturday.
“Our goal is to identify the source of the outbreak and remove it,” Martin stated. “Once that’s accomplished, I expect we will see this situation resolve.”
The release of these test results marks a significant step in pinpointing the outbreak’s cause. Since July 2, when the city identified the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in the area, officials have tested 183 cooling towers on the Upper East Side.
Currently, 46 individuals have been confirmed with Legionnaires’ disease, with 22 requiring hospitalization across ZIP codes 10128, 10028, and 10075. So far, there have been no reported fatalities.
Allegra Thoresen, a spokesperson for the Guggenheim, noted that the investigation into the outbreak is still ongoing. She emphasized that the museum is adhering to all city regulations and utilizes expert third-party companies for their cooling tower maintenance.
The majority of the identified properties are upscale residential buildings, with some hosting retail on the ground floor. It’s worth remembering that a similar outbreak last summer in Central Harlem resulted in seven deaths.
Health officials speculate that the cases on the Upper East Side may be tied to a cooling tower releasing mist with Legionella. Martin believes that cleaning the affected towers should curb the outbreak. However, he warned that more people may still test positive in the following days, as symptoms can take up to two weeks to manifest post-exposure, according to the CDC.
Officials reiterated that residents in buildings with positive cooling tower tests are not inherently at a higher risk of illness. They noted that anyone in the identified ZIP codes could have encountered the bacteria since late June.
To narrow down specific cooling towers responsible for the outbreak, further testing will be needed, as initial PCR tests detected both live and dead bacteria. The city plans to conduct culture analyses to find live strains and utilize whole-genome sequencing to match them to those in confirmed Legionnaires’ cases. This process could span several weeks.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin expressed concern over the health department’s strategy, suggesting that proactive cleaning of all cooling towers in the area should have been prioritized rather than waiting for test results.
In response, Chantal Gomez, a spokesperson for the health department, stated that the city has been actively identifying and ordering cleaning for cooling towers that test positive for Legionella.
Health officials are advising anyone in the Upper East Side, or who has visited since late June, to consult a doctor if they experience symptoms such as shortness of breath, cough, fever, fatigue, or gastrointestinal issues.
