New York City’s famed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was among a number of Manhattan buildings that recently tested positive for the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease amid the city’s latest outbreak.
The city health department on Friday released a list of 31 buildings on the Upper East Side that have been ordered to clean and disinfect their cooling towers as the city deals with the latest outbreak of the disease, which is a serious form of pneumonia.
The distinctive, cylindrical-shaped art museum was among 19 that have already completed the remediation, according to the department’s list. The rest were expected to complete the work by Saturday.
City officials stressed the positive test results do not confirm any of the buildings as the source of outbreak as the tests conducted could not distinguish between live and dead bacteria.
The museum was also not shuttered at any point because of the positive test or remediation work, they said.
“The city has confirmed that there is no additional action needed at this time, and this poses no risk to anyone inside the building,” the museum said in a statement Saturday, noting that it has an outside company that conducts regular monthly testing and treating of its cooling tower.
The Guggenheim was designed by the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site as one of the defining architectural works of the 20th century.
More than 50 people have been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease in connection with the Upper East Side cluster, of which less than 20 remain hospitalized, according to the most recent data from the city health department. No deaths have so far been reported.
Seven people died and more than 100 were sickened during a major outbreak in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem last year that was ultimately traced to cooling towers atop Harlem Hospital and a nearby construction site where the city’s public health lab is located.
Legionella bacteria generally grow in warm water and can spread in building water systems such as showerheads, hot tubs and cooling towers.
The structures are usually found on the top of buildings and control the temperature of systems such as refrigeration, but they do not affect drinking water or the building’s indoor air or air conditioning.
Legionnaires’ disease is also not transmitted person-to-person. People often contract it by breathing in tiny droplets of contaminated water.
Symptoms usually develop two days to two weeks after exposure and include cough, fever, headaches, muscle aches and shortness of breath, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
People are at an increased risk for Legionnaires’ disease if they are age 50 or older, smoke or vape, have a chronic lung disease or have a weakened immune system.
The respiratory ailment's name comes from an outbreak that hit attendees of an American Legion convention in Philadelphia in 1976.
