Cases of a severe type of pneumonia called Legionnaires’ disease have been on the rise in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood since the end of July . As of Aug. 6, 73 people have been diagnosed with the illness, and three people have died, according to the New York City Health Department.
New York is no stranger to Legionnaires’ disease, a bacterial infection that spreads from contaminated water systems. In fact, the city generally has a high rate of cases compared to the rest of the country, said Hannah Newman, senior director of infection prevention at Northwell Health’s Lenox Hill Hospital.
“While there are typically several hundred cases diagnosed per year in New York City, a cluster of this size in this amount of time is much less common,” Newman told HuffPost…