To date, 94 people have been admitted to the hospital with the infection since the outbreak began on July 10 in the south Bronx, the poorest section of New York state.

The health department officials traced the source of the outbreak to the cooling towers in the South Bronx area.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, said epidemiologists and other disease detectives are also trying to determine whether there are other factors that are making people more susceptible to the legionella bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease.

New York City is in the brink of a major Legionnaires’ disease as ten people have been killed and more than a hundred people affected, the city health department announced.

Legionnaires’ Disease is transmitted when water contaminated with legionella bacteria mist is inhaled. However, the disease is easily treated with antibiotics, but if anyone infected having previous medical condition can face higher risk.

The symptoms – which include headache, fatigue, loss of appetite, fever, chills, confusion and diarrhea – tend to appear between 2 to 10 days after significant exposure to the bacteria. “Failure to comply with the commissioner’s order is a misdemeanor”. “The cooling towers are being cleaned and disinfected, and these measures should make the public feel safer”, he said. The New York Daily News reported Friday that Marvin Montgomery’s attorney said he’s planning to file a lawsuit against the city Friday, and that in addition to being compensated for his injuries he wants to prevent future outbreaks.

As per Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state Division of Well Being was going to supply free cooling tower and evaporative condenser testing.

The bacterium was named after an outbreak in 1976, when many people who went to a Philadelphia convention of the American Legion suffered from this disease. Member of the City Council along with Mayor Bill de Blasio are now planning to introduce appropriate legislation in the coming week to require that all buildings that have cooling towers obtain registration apart from inspection and testing and remediation for cooling towers testing positive.

“We now see the frequencies of the diagnoses decreasing”, said city Health Commissioner Mary Bassett. The bacteria thrives in warm water, ideally at around 95 degrees Fahrenheit.