The state is offering free testing to all private building owners through October.
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Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News This water tower at the Verizon building on East 167 St.in the South Bronx tested positive for the bacteria.
On August 11 the health officials will be conducting second town hall meeting as the outbreak is the largest in south Bronx’s history with Legionnaires’ Disease.
A spokeswoman for University Hospitals Case Medical Center says a 53-year-old woman has died from complications of community-acquired Legionnaires’ disease.
A spokesman for New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said his office closely reviews all claims. Several people have died. The towers, common on the rooftops of modern buildings, are used for heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
Health officials said that the frequency of Legionnaires’ diagnoses was decreasing and the peak of the outbreak had passed.
When asked to weigh in on de Blasio’s response to the outbreak, Cuomo demurred, saying only that the “situation became critical” and warranted state assistance.
Legionnaire’s disease is a type of pneumonia that is caused by inhaling mist that are Legionella bacteria contaminated. On Saturday, 57 cooling towers in New York were disinfected; all 161 buildings with possible cooling towers will have been inspected and disinfected by Sunday with 200 people working around the clock, said de Blasio.
The disease takes its name from its first outbreak, in 1976, at a Philadelphia hotel where a meeting of the American Legion society was being held.
The overall number of cases of people who contracted the bacterial infection also increased-to 97, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
All of the victims of the New York outbreak have so far been elderly and already had respiratory problems before catching Legionnaires. Symptoms of the disease include fever, chills and a cough.
The mayor said the order was being issued by Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the city’s health commissioner.
Epidemiologists at the state’s Wadsworth Center laboratories will test Legionella samples from patients and cooling towers to assess patterns in the outbreak, Zucker said.
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On average, there are about 540 cases of Legionnaires’ disease a year in New York state and about 18,000 cases nationally.
