We will present an overview of: (1) the epidemiology of Legionnaires’ disease (LD), (2) techniques applied by the New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for routine LD surveillance and outbreak investigation, (3) detection and investigation of the second largest community-acquired LD outbreak in the U.S (South Bronx, July 2015), and (4) recent legislation enforcing regular maintenance, testing, and mediation of NYC cooling towers. We will conclude by soliciting suggestions from the ISDS community for techniques for defining an outbreak zone and for analyzing point patterns of case locations and cooling towers.

Presenters

Sharon K. Greene, PhD, MPH, Director, Data Analysis Unit
Sharon Balter, MD, Director, Enteric, Waterborne, and Health Education Unit Bureau of Communicable Disease, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene