Bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease discovered in Guggenheim Museum cooling tower
As New York continues to experience an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, a rare but severe form of pneumonia, officials have uncovered the bacteria that causes the disease inside the cooling tower of the Guggenheim Museum.
So far, the building remains safe for employees and visitors to enter, according to the union that represents its workers and the museum itself.
The threat of the often-fatal disease continues to rock Manhattan’s Upper East Side. In response, health department officials have tested almost 160 building cooling towers for bacteria.
Upon receiving the news, the Guggenheim shared a statement with its staff that read, as per The Art Newspaper, “We do regular, monthly testing and cleaning of our cooling towers using third-party expert companies”.
In this instance, it continues, “all remediation required by the city was taken immediately”.
The email went on to explain, “Our testing consultant has said that this poses no risk to anyone in the building except for people in direct contact with the cooling tower, which is not accessible to the public or staff other than facilities staff.”
Legionnaires’ disease is spread through the inhalation of microscopic, contaminated water droplets. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t spread from person-to-person or through drinking water.
Alister Martin, the commissioner of the New York City health department, has explained that the outbreak has been worsened by the change in climate, as the disease thrives in warm water.
As per The Guardian, he shared, “It is absolutely true that climate change is worsening our exposure and increasing the propensity for legionnaires’ disease clusters like we’re seeing today.”
As of July 9th, there are 46 confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease, with 22 current hospitalisations, currently contained to three postcodes across the affluent Upper East Side.
According to official statistics, as many as 10 per cent of people diagnosed with the disease will die.
