As NYC Probes Legionnaires’ Outbreak Source, Survivors May Have ‘Difficult’ Recovery

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Melinda Baron has a story for New Yorkers worried about the Upper East Side Legionnaires’ outbreak: She survived after contracting the disease seven years ago and is grateful for the outcome, but spent many months on the mend.

New York City health officials say 89 people have tested positive for the Legionella bacterium. Seventy-one have been hospitalized, and five others have died since an initial pair of cases was confirmed on July 2.

Most healthy people who are exposed to the Legiononella bacteria don’t get sick, health officials say. But those who do can become seriously ill, like Baron, and end up intubated and in intensive care. Baron’s plight with Legionnaires’ highlights the physical and emotional toil that the severe form of pneumonia takes on people, subjecting them to a recovery that can be arduous and painful.

“Hard, long — it was very difficult,” said Baron, 41, an insurance fraud investigator who works from her home in Maryland.

In the Upper East Side outbreak, 85% of the people who contracted the illness required hospitalization, health officials said. Officials declined to say how many of the hospital patients have required treatment in intensive care, citing privacy.

Legionnaires’ is a severe form of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacterium. It spreads through airborne water droplets, not by drinking water or through person-to-person spread. Many of the outbreaks in New York City are caused by mist generated by the thousands of cooling towers on top of buildings, and health officials said they believe they have eliminated the source of the current outbreak — possibly a single cooling tower — though dozens of the rooftop machines have tested positive for the bacterium.

An estimated 25,000 people develop Legionnaires’ disease in the United States each year, according to the New York State Department of Health. An additional unknown number are infected with the Legionella bacterium and have mild symptoms or no illness at all. Cases occur sporadically, but outbreaks occur most often in the summer, when building owners operate their cooling towers to keep their tenants cool.

Between 200 and 800 cases are reported each year in New York state, including New York City, according to the New York State Department of Health.

Legionnaires’ has been a perennial concern in New York City, and city officials passed legislation last fall in an effort seeking stricter testing requirements in cooling towers to prevent future outbreaks. An outbreak last summer in Central Harlem resulted in 118 confirmed cases and seven deaths; 92 patients were hospitalized, with 24 admitted to intensive care, according to one study.

There is no vaccine.

Speaker Slams City Health Department’s Response

The latest outbreak in the Upper East Side has drawn sharp criticism from City Council Speaker Julie Menin, whose district has been the center of infection. She and other officials say the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene was slow to respond.

Chief among the Council’s concerns: The Health Department didn’t “proactively” disinfect cooling towers and didn’t do enough to communicate with residents about the outbreak. The City Council plans to hold an oversight hearing in September to “examine the administration’s insufficient response to this outbreak,” Menin said last week.

She raised questions about whether the city has issued fines to cooling tower operators who didn’t comply with the new law requiring monthly testing. The legislation took effect May 8.

The Health Department said it collected approximately $680,000 in cooling tower-related fines for fiscal year 2025 to ensure operators are maintaining the devices to prevent the growth of Legionella. Officials declined to say how many fines have been collected since the new law took effect, adding that an inspection process includes issuing a summons, holding a hearing, and imposing a decision before a fine is collected.

City health officials disputed Menin’s accusation, saying the Health Department responded quickly to the outbreak.

“Remediation and enforcement strategies likely stopped the bacteria from spreading early and were critical to keeping more people from getting sick,” department spokeswoman Chantal Gomez wrote in a statement, adding that health officials have held town hall meetings and press briefings and been updating the public daily.

Health officials say they have not diagnosed a Legionnaires’ case since July 15.

Baron Revisits Her Experience With Legionnaires’

Baron fell ill around Memorial Day weekend in 2019, when she and her husband spent time with family at a hotel in central Florida. Around four days after relaxing in a hot tub there, she landed in a hospital in Georgia. Hot tubs are also a source of Legionella.

Two groups are at high risk of getting Legionnaires’: people older than 50 and smokers. Baron was 34 and didn’t smoke. Her heart rate was unusually high. She had to be hospitalized and put in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator. Seven days later, she was extubated and woke to a strange reality.

“I didn’t know for a minute where I was or what happened,” Baron recalled. “I knew I was in a hospital, because I could see the hospital bed in front of me, and there was a nurse to my left, and my mom was in the corner.”

Her mother told her that the doctors believe she had most likely contracted Legionnaires’ from the hotel hot tub, citing the incubation period. The incubation period for Legionnaires’ ranges from two to 10 days but is usually five to six.

Baron was discharged more than two weeks later. Her recovery was slow and a period of profound isolation. She was often short of breath and disoriented, and her body ached in unusual places.

“It’s been hard, but I’m here, and I’m thankful every single day that I’m here, because it could have gone so much worse,” said Baron. “It’s a long recovery. But you can recover, because I’m living proof of that, and I was at the brink of death.”

Trenton Daniel is a reporter covering public health in New York for Healthbeat. Contact Trenton at tdaniel@healthbeat.org or on the messaging app Signal at trentondaniel.88.

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