Groundbreaking findings have been discovered in Legionnaires’ disease cases throughout Elmira

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.”