Legionnaires

Aug. 7 (UPI) — Families of victims of last year’s Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Harlem are suing New York City, alleging neglect and failures to follow to its own regulations led to dozens being sickened by bacteria and several deaths.

Three lawsuits filed Thursday by Attorney Ben Crump, along with co-counsel Jared Scotto and Nabeha Shaer, represent five of the seven people who died in the outbreak and 41 individuals and families who say it harmed them.

Announcing the lawsuits during a press conference, Rev. Al Sharpton, founder of the civil rights organization National Action Network, said they were not going to allow those harmed to be forgotten, while Crump stated that Harlem, a historically Black neighborhood, was neglected during the outbreak compared with other parts of New York City.

“Harlem is the center of Black America, historically has always been; that does not mean Harlem should be the center of a Legionnaires’ outbreak in the center of New York,” he said. “And so, we’re here today telling people that Harlem should never get less than — it should get everything that everybody else gets.”

Harlem was struck by a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak from July to August 2025, consisting of 118 confirmed cases and seven deaths.

Legionnaires’ disease is a type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria that grow in warm water. It is contracted by inhaling water vapor that contains the bacteria.

According to the lawsuits, the plaintiffs were exposed to Legionella bacteria while in the vicinity of cooling towers that tested positive for the bacteria at two locations: Harlem Hospital and the NYC Public Health Lab.

The complaint alleges that the city, along with its health department and a handful of contractors, failed to develop and follow a water management plan required by the New York State Sanitary Code and failed to meet the code’s cooling tower registration, inspection, testing and other related requirements.

Crump and Sharpton spoke during the press conference surrounded by victims of the outbreak, including the fiancee and 6-year-old daughter of Bruce Scott, who died from the outbreak.

“I’m a single mother now,” Lakisha Plowden said as she hugged her and Scott’s daughter, Brooke. “We don’t have her best friend and we don’t have my soul mate.”

UPI has contacted NYC for comment.

“Our lives mean something,” Sharpton said. “You cannot act as though the lives of people and the worth of people depend on what part of the town they live in. Geography does not have anything to do with biology. If Legionnaires’ disease was bad in one part of town it should be valued the same in every part of town. And that is what this is about.”

The announcement came nearly a week after the NYC Health Department declared an end to the Upper Easter Side Legionnaire’s disease outbreak that led to 92 confirmed cases and seven deaths.

July 7 (UPI) — An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York City’s Upper East Side has sickened nearly two dozen people, officials said Tuesday, as they continue to investigate the cluster.

The community cluster has been identified in the neighborhoods of Carnegie Hill and Yorkville. The NYC Health Department said in a statement that there have been 23 cases of the disease, including 17 hospitalizations, since July 6.

The count is also an increase from 14 cases reported on Sunday. The cluster was first made public July 2 after two people were diagnosed with the disease.

City health officials are urging New Yorkers and those who have visited the areas since late June and are experiencing flu-like symptoms to contact a healthcare provider immediately.

“More than 100 NYC Health Department staff members have worked nonstop since the start of this cluster as we take aggressive action to ensure that we are cutting off the source of exposure as quickly as possible,” Dr. Alister Martin, NYC health commissioner, said in a statement.

Legionnaires’ disease is a form of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria, which grow in warm water. Those who inhale water vapor that contains the bacteria can get sick with the disease, which causes flu-like symptoms. Most people exposed to the bacteria do not develop the disease. However, among those who do contract it, complications can be fatal.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 8,000 and 18,000 people are hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease each year in the United States.

All cooling towers in the affected area are being sampled and tested at the city’s public health lab in order to locate the source, NYC Comptroller Mark Levine said, but warned that “it unfortunately takes several weeks for cultures to grow.”

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said that the issue is not with any building’s plumbing or indoor air conditioning and residents of the two neighborhoods are safe to drink tap water, bathe, shower and cook.

“The collection of water samples, laboratory testing and community outreach has been ongoing through the Fourth of July holiday weekend,” he said in an online statement.