By DAVID CRUZ 

Though cases of Legionnaires’ disease have not crept up to the Norwood area, the state is offering building landlords free testing of rooftop cooling towers, considered a kind of petri dish for the water-borne ailment. The program is in response to the largest outbreak on Legionnaires’ disease in New York City history, claiming 10 lives and sickening 100, with 65 of them treated and released.

Building landlords are eligible for the free service, intended to quell fears and contain the outbreak. So far Legionnaires’ disease has been confined to the South Bronx, though officials are not taking any chances.

The New York State Health Department’s Wadsworth Center Laboratory will conduct free testing that’s available until October. Officials believe Legionnaires’ disease is commonly active during the summer months, when high temperatures allow the disease to fester in active cooling towers that require water. Meantime, state health department teams have been dispatched to the Bronx to collect water samples from cooling towers.

For the past week, the number of Legionnaires’ disease cases has grown. Officials have consistently stressed the victims were older, with underlying conditions, making the disease easier to contract. A normal healthy body can ward off the disease. Symptoms for Legionnaires’ Disease are akin to pneumonia.

At a recent news conference at Lincoln Hospital in Mott Haven, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, said cooling units serving as engines for central air can allow Legionnaires’ disease to “flourish.”

“And in summer months, when air conditioning is used a lot, the opportunity for cool water to turn into hot water increases, and when – and that creates a potential setting in which this bacteria can flourish. And many times it’s in water, but not in concentrations that would cause human disease. But in these units, they can – if they aren’t well maintained or some problem has emerged – they can create a setting in which the bacteria can develop further.”

So far officials have been unable to determine how Legionnaires’ disease wound up in cooling towers to begin with.

Editor’s Note: To schedule a testing, call (888) 769-7243 or (518) 485-1159. Operators will be available Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.