MELROSE — The latest victim of Legionnaires' disease at the Melrose Houses may be a holdover from the outbreak that killed 12 people and infected more than 120 others this summer, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Although the city declared an end to the outbreak on Aug. 20, de Blasio said it was still possible that the newly infected person had gotten sick from the cooling tower at the Opera House Hotel that contained Legionella bacteria.
"This individual was within the time frame where it may have been caused by the Opera House Hotel previous to its full cleaning," the mayor said.
De Blasio downplayed the new case, stressing that the positive test result for Legionella bacteria was "very faint" and that the city was carrying forth its cleanup efforts out of "an abundance of caution."
"We do not have a definitive result," he said. "We have an initial test positive that's fairly faint."
In response to this summer's outbreak, the city passed legislation in August that requires buildings with cooling towers to have them registered and regularly cleaned.
Although the latest case was found in a water distribution system and not a cooling tower, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said she still believes that the cooling tower legislation is enough to protect residents from Legionella.
"This latest case may still be affiliated with the Opera House Hotel, and until we get the results we shouldn't jump the gun," she said.
Nevertheless, the city began installing filters on Thursday morning on the kitchen faucets, bathroom faucets and shower heads of apartments at 681 Courtlandt Ave. to help fight the disease. Half of the apartments have been outfitted and the rest should be installed by Friday morning.
At a meeting about the disease on Wednesday night, frustrated Melrose residents questioned officials from NYCHA and the Health Department about why they had not looked into Legionnaires' at their development earlier and why they were not now spreading out their cleanup efforts more broadly.
Melrose Houses resident Almeta Trammel questioned whether it would be enough to focus only on the water system at 681 Courtlandt Ave., the building where the bacteria was found in the water distribution system.
"If it's cost efficient to do for one building, why not just do all of [the] Melrose housing project so we can just be safe?" she asked, a comment that received a round of applause from the audience.
Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett responded that it "wouldn't be appropriate" to extend their cleanup efforts to every building in the housing development without knowing whether or not they had problems with Legionnaires' disease.
The filters, which look similar to Brita filters, physically screen out Legionella bacteria and other particulate matter, including bacteria, according to NYCHA.
Officials at Wednesday night's meeting said the filters would fill up quickly due to the amount of sediment in New York City's drinking water and told residents to contact them if this happens so they can switch them out.
They also told them to expect a lower volume of water coming out of the filtered taps.
