2 cases of Legionnaires’ disease at B’klyn public housing complex

Five attackers slashed a 15-year-old boy on a Brooklyn street, police said Monday.

The crew pounced on the victim on Sixth Ave. near 47th St. in Sunset Park about 7:40 a.m. on Saturday, according to cops.

Medics took the boy to Maimonides Medical Center in stable condition with cuts to his arm, head and abdomen.

The attackers drove off and have not been caught.

City health officials say they are evaluating the water system at a Brooklyn public housing complex after two residents were diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease.

The cases broke out in two buildings in the Langston Hughes Apartments (photo on Sutter Ave. near Mother Gaston Blvd. in Brownsville) within the past 12 months, a city Health Department spokesman confirmed Monday.

The agency is working with the New York City Housing Authority to sample the building’s water system for evidence of the bacteria associated with Legionnaires’ disease, the spokesman said.

Legionella, the bacteria that causes the disease, is found in water vapor. In rare cases, the bacteria can spread through drinking water that accidentally reaches someone’s lungs after it is swallowed, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For high-risk individuals. including people ages 50 and older who may be exposed, the city recommends that they avoid showers, even cool showers, and instead take a bath and not spend time in the bathroom while the tub is filling.

The Health Department also recommends drinking only cold water from the tap to avoid creating mist or steam.

About 200 to 500 people across the five boroughs are diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease each year, the agency said.

Legionnaires’ disease can be treated with antibiotics, the Health Department noted, though it can sometimes be deadly.

In 2022, at least two residents of an upper Manhattan nursing home died after contracting Legionnaires’ disease.

Six other residents at the Amsterdam Nursing Home in Morningside Heights who came down with severe pneumonia at the facility had suspected cases of the disease.

Sunset Park scene of the hideous crime and a bloody cell phone (inset) left behind. Hao Bin Zhao, 14 (left), called his mother, Xiao Hong Chen, 52 (right), who was killed Jan. 16 as she was crossing a Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, street, “a great person.”