Legionnaires' Disease

Legionnaires' Disease
Legionnaires’ disease is a type of pneumonia. It is caused by bacteria (Legionella) that grow in warm water. Legionnaires’ disease causes flu-like symptoms, and complications from the disease can be fatal.

People who inhale mist that contains Legionella bacteria can get sick.

Most people who are exposed to the bacteria do not develop Legionnaires’ disease, and it is not contagious — you cannot get it from someone else. You cannot get Legionnaires’ disease by drinking the water. The bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease does not spread through cooled air from air conditioners.

You are at an increased risk for Legionnaires’ disease if you:

Are 50 years old or older
Smoke
Have a chronic lung disease
Have a weakened immune system
Take medicines that weaken your immune system
When there are multiple people in a neighborhood with Legionnaires’ disease (community cluster), common sources of exposure are cooling towers, hot tubs, and spray fountains.

At other times, when there are multiple people with Legionnaires' disease who live in the same building (building cluster), the exposure is typically related to a building’s plumbing system — most often the hot water system. When this happens, a building’s residents can be exposed through water mist when they shower.

When there are two or more confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease within a 12-month period associated with the same building with a shared hot water system, the Health Department will conduct a building evaluation.

Legionnaires’ Disease and Building Evaluations (PDF)
Copper Silver Ionization Water Treatment and Health (PDF)
Symptoms
Legionnaires’ disease symptoms include fever, chills, muscle aches, and cough. People may also have headaches, fatigue, loss of appetite, confusion or diarrhea.

If you have these symptoms, seek medical attention. It is especially important for people at increased risk for Legionnaires’ disease to seek care right away. Tell your health care provider you are worried about Legionnaires’ disease.

Prevention
There is no vaccine or medicine that can prevent Legionnaires’ disease. The best way to prevent it is through the proper maintenance of water systems where Legionella may grow.

In NYC, building owners are required to register cooling towers. This allows the Health Department to quickly investigate when we are notified of clusters of Legionnaires’ disease cases. Building owners also need to routinely test the water in the cooling tower for the presence of Legionella and do routine checks of their system as required by NYC cooling tower regulations. They also need to routinely test the water for the presence of Legionella. You can look up results of Health Department inspections of cooling tower systems by building address or building identification number (BIN).

The Health Department investigates clusters of Legionnaires’ disease cases to find the source of the contamination in order to prevent other people from getting sick.
https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/legionnaires-disease.page

colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) with moderately-high magnification of 8000X depicting a large grouping of Gram-negative Legionella pneumophila bacteria Janice Haney Carr; provided by CDC/ Margaret Williams, PhD; Claressa Lucas, PhD;Tatiana Travis, BS - This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #11150. Note: Not all PHIL images are public domain; be sure to check copyright status and credit authors and content providers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionella_pneumophila#/media/File:Legionella_pneumophila_(SEM).jpg

Legionnaires' Disease

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