After the incidents of Legionnaires’ disease at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center and elsewhere in New York, at least one federal lawmaker wants more federal funding to help combat the condition.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) wants to provide increased federal funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to further research the bacteria and disease and develop national standards for Legionella testing in buildings’ water supplies.
Schumer believes it is “unacceptable” that the federal government currently lacks national standards to test cooling towers and water supplies, the lawmaker said in a news release his office issued on Monday.
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The Democrat wants to see his Senate colleagues include $500 million for the CDC’s core infectious-diseases program, which includes a focus on Legionnaires’ disease.
Schumer said the CDC has indicated that Legionella is an emerging respiratory pathogen and, as such, it would need increased resources to properly research and eventually create these national standards.
He wants the funding in the fiscal year 2016 labor, health and human services, education and related agencies’ appropriations bill. The figure would represent an increase of $250 million, according to Schumer’s office.
The lawmaker also wants the CDC to work with New York and study new state regulations on testing cooling towers so it can develop and share a national plan to prevent reemergence of deadly Legionnaires’ with cities across upstate New York and the country.
New York incidents
A patient at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in September died from what the hospital believes were “complications of multiple medical problems in addition to the Legionella pneumonia,” according to an Oct. 26 statement on the situation.
The hospital also noted that it hasn’t been able to conclude the patient contracted the bacteria while at the hospital. St. Joseph’s also had two additional patients who tested positive for Legionella but did recover, according to its statement.
The cases at St. Joseph’s aren’t the only examples to which Schumer refers.
In August, an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Bronx killed 13 New Yorkers and left many more ill. On Long Island, officials found Legionella bacteria in seven schools.
The Democrat also cites a Newsday report that indicates researchers found that New York had the highest rates of Legionnaires’ infection nationwide.
The report said about half of the 1,426 cases studied between 2011 and 2013 required admission to hospital intensive-care units.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
