After delivering notices of a second resident contracting Legionnaires’ disease at 20 W. Mosholu Pkwy. S. within the last 12 months, an official from the city Department of Health (DOH) told concerned residents that testing for the bacteria will soon take place.

At a meeting Tuesday night inside the building’s community room, Ricky Wong, director of Community Affairs at DOH, informed the tenants of the department’s plan to start testing the building’s water for the bacteria. He said that water testing could “potentially happen at the earliest by the end of this week.”

Results from the water samples can take between two to three weeks.

Tracey Towers is comprised of two high-rise apartment buildings, 20 and 40 W. Mosholu Pkwy S., with their own separate sources for hot water. Because of this arrangement, residents at 40 W. Mosholu Pkwy. S. were not notified of the DOH investigation.

As for the two cases that have been identified at the 20 building, Wong cautioned tenants about reaching conclusions before the water there is tested. “There’s a potential that people may have been exposed elsewhere. People are transient, which means people go everywhere,” Wong said. “You go to work, you go to your community center, you go downtown to visit your cousin on the Lower East Side.”

Oftentimes, reports of Legionnaires’ disease are often associated with buildings equipped with cooling towers. Tracey Towers does not have this equipment that is usually found on buildings with central air conditioning. When a question was asked about the possibility of apartment air conditioners, which are common at the 20 building, as a source of the bacteria, Wong reassured the tenants that it was unlikely.

“Legionella bacteria could be present [in a window air conditioner, but it] needs hot water to grow into amounts that can infect people and make them sick,” Wong said.

The printed notice from DOH reassured tenants that the “the risk of getting sick from a building’s water system is very low, especially for healthy people.”

One tenant who preferred not to give her name complained about the extra measures residents need to take.  “It’s scary [to get a notice like this] with so many people in the building.  They’re telling us not to use any hot water, but we have so many elderly, we have a lot of people with children.  This ain’t right,” she said.

DOH does recommend that those with health issues such as chronic lung disease, a weakened immune system, or if aged 50 and over, immediately seek medical attention if they develop a fever, chills, muscle aches and cough.

Editor’s Note: If tenants have any further concerns, they can call the DOH Community Affairs Unit at (347) 396-4161.