Health Dept.: Legionella Detected at Harlem Residential Complex

Legionella bacteria has officially been detected at a five-building complex in Harlem, after NYC Health Department inspectors announced that they’d be investigating the building at the beginning of the year.

An investigation of 3333 Broadway was triggered after the Health Department determined that two residents living there contracted Legionnaire’s disease, both within a period of approximately one year.

Officials initially indicated that they’d be centering their testing protocol on cooling towers at the complex. They’ve since pivoted to the complex’s hot-water system, which led to the newly-announced discovery of lingering bacteria earlier this month.

“In coordination with building management and their water management team, the next steps include hiring a water management team and performing remediation of the water system to address the immediate risk,” a spokesperson for the Health Department told The Spirit on Feb. 12. “Building management will perform follow-up testing to confirm the effectiveness of treatment.”

“While Legionnaires’ is a rare disease and risk to most residents remains low, those who are in high-risk groups are recommended to limit exposure to water mist while this work is underway,” the spokesperson added.

The probe drew a fair amount of consternation from some residents not long after it began. Specifically, a Jan. 5 informational meeting left a few people with a sour taste in their mouth, as the Columbia Spectator reported.

“We left the meeting without clear timelines, without dates, and without a clear understanding of how this investigation is moving forward,” a resident who identified himself as Tony B. said.

“In fact, the primary guidance that residents [received] from the [Health Department] was to take cold baths instead of showers for the foreseeable future without an end date,” he added.

A Health Department source indicated to The Spirit that residents are still being advised to take similar precautions, such as taking baths instead of showers, since showers release a greater amount of water vapor. If residents don’t have showers, they have been advised to use a bucket of water to bathe. They’ve also been advised to use the sink slowly, so as not to generate mist.

Meanwhile, our sister publication Our Town reported that a parallel probe of the plumbing system at an Upper East Side co-op building—The Cherokee Apartments on Cherokee Place–turned up lingering Legionella this week.

Residents of the co-op are being advised to follow Health Department guidance on monitoring for Legionnaire’s symptoms, while the Health Dept. has contacted building management to conduct a follow-up meeting with said residents.

Both probes follow a deadly outbreak of the disease that tore through Harlem last summer, which sickened 114 people and killed seven. The event led to the passage of a City Council bill putting more stringent testing requirements in place. It comes after Gothamist reported on a significant reduction in proactive Legionnaire’s probes between 2017 and 2025.

Legionnaire’s disease, which is caused by Legionella, causes flu-like symptoms. The mortality rate for any given outbreak sits between 5 and 15 percent, although not everybody who is exposed to Legionella necessarily ends up with Legionnaire’s. The disease is not contagious, and is instead contracted from exposure to infected water vapor.