Legionnaires’ outbreak rocks New York as experts warn of rising climate threat

Officials say climate crisis ‘worsening our exposure’ to bacteria as at least 28 people sickened in Manhattan A New York outbreak of legionnaires’ disease, a rare but severe form of pneumonia, highlights the microbe’s growing and disproportionate impacts in a warming climate. At least 28 people have been sickened in an outbreak on the Upper East Side, a wealthy neighborhood between Central Park and the East River in Manhattan. Health department officials, seeking to stop the outbreak, have sampled water from nearly 160 building cooling towers to test for the bacteria. Continue reading...

Jessica Glenza in New York · Thu, Jul 9, 2026, 7:00 AM
US news | The Guardian

Legionnaires’ outbreak rocks New York as experts warn of rising climate threat

Officials say climate crisis ‘worsening our exposure’ to bacteria as at least 28 people sickened in Manhattan

A New York outbreak of legionnaires’ disease, a rare but severe form of pneumonia, highlights the microbe’s growing and disproportionate impacts in a warming climate.

At least 28 people have been sickened in an outbreak on the Upper East Side, a wealthy neighborhood between Central Park and the East River in Manhattan. Health department officials, seeking to stop the outbreak, have sampled water from nearly 160 building cooling towers to test for the bacteria.

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