Legionnaires' hit close to home

This summer’s outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease infected at least 120 people, killing 12 of them, but none of the cases were reported to reach as far beyond the South Bronx epicenter as Riverdale or Kingsbridge.

With the outbreak declared over by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) on Aug. 20, the main task facing authorities is enforcing new legislation that mandates the regular inspection and cleaning of cooling towers. Legionnella bacteria were found in that kind of structure.

The number of cooling towers here and the rest of the city was unknown at the time of the outbreak. Authorities are working to catalogue that information in keeping with the new legislation.

While the outbreak was still spreading last month, Community Board (CB) 8’s Health, Hospitals and Social Services Committee Chairman Steven Froot never had to confront Legionnaires’ directly.

“There was nothing done [in the northwest Bronx] specifically different than whatever the measures initiated by the state and city heath departments were,” he said.

Mr. Froot added that CB 8 did not receive any unusual or troublesome calls relating to Legionnaire’s during the time of the outbreak. 

Although the elderly were the most susceptible to the disease, regulars at Riverdale Senior Services (RSS) on Netherland Avenue were mostly unfazed by the outbreak.

Max Mulberg trusted that administrators had the situation under control.

“The people are pretty intelligent here,” he said. 

Mr. Mulberg was somewhat concerned about whether the outbreak would contaminate his groceries.

“I shop at the Key Foods on 235th Street, and there they spray the fruit and vegetables every so often,” he said. The disease reportedly spread via mist from cooling towers or other sources of water.

Luciana Pepenella, another RSS patron, said Legionnaires’ disease was not much of a discussion topic among her friends at the center. She was not particularly worried about it affecting her since no nearby cases had been reported.