New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has hired six more water ecologists in the weeks following this summer’s Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that killed seven people and sickened 114 in total.

The new hires expand the agency’s ability to prevent future outbreaks by inspecting more cooling towers where dangerous Legionella bacteria can grow. Diane Fung, assistant commissioner for environmental health, said the roles have been historically difficult to fill, but this year’s public health crisis, and the publicity it received, resulted in an influx of applications for the positions.

In August, Gothamist reported that the department lost more than a third of its cooling tower inspectors in the three years leading up to the outbreak. Fung said the staffing shortage led to

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