New York City’s Solomon R Guggenheim Museum is among several Manhattan properties that recently tested positive for the bacteria linked to legionnaires’ disease, according to city health officials.
On Friday, the city’s health department published a list of 31 Upper East Side buildings ordered to clean and disinfect their cooling towers as officials respond to the latest cluster of the illness, a severe type of pneumonia.
The Guggenheim, known for its unmistakable cylindrical design, was one of 19 buildings that had already finished the required remediation work, the department said. The remaining buildings were expected to complete the process by Saturday.
Officials cautioned, however, that a positive test does not identify any building as the source of the outbreak. The tests used cannot determine whether the bacteria detected were alive or dead.
City officials also said the museum was not closed at any point because of the test result or the cleaning work.
“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. The Guggenheim added that it works with an outside company to conduct monthly testing and treatment of its cooling tower.
Designed by celebrated architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the Guggenheim is recognized as a Unesco World Heritage site and is widely regarded as one of the landmark architectural achievements of the 20th century.
More than 50 people have been diagnosed with legionnaires’ disease in connection with the Upper East Side cluster, according to the latest figures from the city health department. Fewer than 20 remain hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported so far.
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.
Those structures are usually found on the tops of buildings and control the temperatures 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 USCenters 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.
