The New York Department and Chemung County Health Department have released the following press release an update of the Legionella Investigation in Elmira:
“The New York State Department of Health, working collaboratively with the Chemung County Health Department, announced new findings in its ongoing investigation into a cluster of Legionnaires’ disease cases in the City of Elmira.
Testing completed at New York State’s Wadsworth Center determined a molecular match between specimens from four patients who live within the same Elmira neighborhood and who had recently been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease.”
The release continues on to say:
“Environmental samples were collected by the State and County health departments in the homes of those patients and from cooling towers in proximity to determine whether there was a common point of exposure.
After extensive testing, a sample collected from one of three cooling towers at Elmira Heat Treating proved to match the Legionella bacteria from the four clinical cases.”

