The waterborne disease has killed 10 people and infected 101, making it the largest outbreak in the city’s history.
The New York City health commissioner, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, has ordered all owners of buildings with cooling towers to disinfect those towers within two weeks in response to a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires' disease.
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State health officials convened for a press conference at the Manhattan office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday to discuss the largest outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in New York City history.
The outbreak was discovered by the city in late July and was narrowed down to five water-cooling towers in the South Bronx, though they are still unsure which is responsible for the outbreak, the New York Times reported.
So far 101 people have been infected with the legionella virus, 10 of whom have died. The surviving patients have been treated or remain in Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx.
The day before the press conference, city health officials issued a public order requiring all buildings with cooling towers to disinfect their water within 14 days, and to maintain records of their inspection.
It is unknown exactly how many cooling towers there are in New York City, but Bassett said Thursday that there are at least 2,500, mostly in industrial or commercial areas.
Beginning Saturday, the state will deploy teams to expedite the process of inspecting and testing the towers. The teams will aid in the citywide disinfection process and work to isolate which tower in the Bronx contains the bacteria.
Bassett announced on Friday that there have been no new fatalities from the disease, and only one new case announced since the seven they diagnosed earlier in the week.
"While it is clearly a significant outbreak in the Bronx, this is a state-wide issue and the governor is monitoring Legionnaire's statewide," New York State health commissioner, Dr. Howard A. Zucker, said at the conference.
"The outbreak has not affected the city's drinking or bathing water," the New York Department of Health announced on its website. "It is safe for building residents to drink and bathe with tap water."
Dr. Claressa Lucas — who is leading the investigative team for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and with whom the city says they have kept in close contact with while investigating the disease — said she thought the city had done a "very good job in mobilizing their resources and reaching out to their partners for overflow."
"Our interventions have been effective, and we've contained this outbreak," Bassett said on Twitter Saturday. Yet, she admitted, their job is not yet done.
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