Concerns from the people of South Bronx rises as a disease threatens more life. New York now faces perhaps the largest outbreak of Legionnaire's disease in the history of the city. Though critics would say that New York has done little to address the prime breeding grounds of the deadly disease, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio together with other city officials are doing their best to organize a more aggressive approach to contain the disease. On a press conference, Blasio stated that there have been 86 cases of the Legionnaires' disease reported there since July 10, and as to the report, seven people having such disease already died.
It can be remembered that the first known outbreak of Legionnaires' disease was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1976. Where within the week of the outbreak more than 130 people had been hospitalized and 25 others had died. That is why authorities and health experts are concerned of the unusual increase of the cases in South Bronx. As to the words of Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett;
"We are concerned about this unusual increase in Legionnaires' disease cases in the South Bronx...We are conducting a swift investigation to determine the source of the outbreak and prevent future cases. I urge anyone with symptoms to seek medical attention right away,"
For the public's information Legionnaires' disease is a severe form of pneumonia that may result to lung inflammation caused by infection. Legionella is referred to be the type of bacterium causing such disease, and according to experts it thrives mostly in cooling towers, and evaporative condensers of large air-conditioning systems and even of whirlpool spas.
And because of the many possible breeding ground and difficulty of identifying the cause of the disease in many cases, it took some time for the city official to identify the source of the disease and act upon it accordingly. As to Mr. Blasioon his statement released by nytimes, he said that;
"Previously, and this is the consensus of everyone I've talked to who are experts in this field, there wasn't an identified pattern that suggested these cooling towers were a problem... Now we have a pattern."
Now that the source of the outbreak has been most likely identified, officials had already planned to tighten regulation of the cooling towers. However, Dr. Jay Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control for the city health department, said on an interview and as stated on nytimes, that "health officials are confident that they have identified and addressed the most likely cause of the outbreak but have not yet determined whether it was one or more of the towers."
As of now the disease detectives are out in the field to further investigate and gather samples. For though knowledge of the disease may be already thorough, the health department is still not disregarding the fact of an evolving situation. And for people experiencing some symptoms of the disease which may include shortness of breath, high fever, chills, chest pains and also appetite loss, Mayor Blasio instructed to immediately seek a physician's care to fully determine your health condition and avoid further cases.
