Legionnaires Disease At Fort Lee High Rise

Nov 1, 2004 7:18 am US/Eastern

FORT LEE, N.J. The water supply to a luxury co-op building in Bergen County was shut off after tests found bacteria that may cause Legionnaire's disease.

The water system at The Colony building in Fort Lee was tested after a second resident - identified only as a 78-year-old woman with lung cancer - was diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease last week. About one-thousand people live in the building's 484 units, officials said, including many elderly residents.

The first resident, described only as an elderly man, was diagnosed in June but has since made a full recovery. The latest victim was treated at a hospital and later released, but officials don't know yet if the two victims had the same strain of the disease.

Legionnaires disease is a potentially deadly respiratory illness caused by Legionella, a bacterium that grows in water and can be spread through air-conditioning ducts.