A second victim of the legionnaire's disease outbreak in Cumbria died last night, health officials confirmed today.

A woman in her 50s became the second fatality in the current outbreak following the death of 88-year-old Richard Macaulay of Barrow last week.

Doctors are coping with more than 110 confirmed cases of the disease, which public health officials say spread as a result of faulty air conditioning in a Barrow-in-Furness arts centre. Last night 23 patients were in intensive care with two giving doctors cause for concern.

It was not known whether the second victim of the disease was one of those two seriously ill.

Legionnaire's disease is a form of pneumonia carried on tiny water droplets and is more dangerous among those with poor immune systems, such as the elderly or the very young. The incubation period of the bug can last as long as 10 days, meaning doctors are anticipating new cases to be admitted to hospital through the weekend.

Around 150 have needed hospital treatment for confirmed or suspected cases of the disease - making it the biggest outbreak in the UK for more than a decade. All had been in or around the centre of Barrow-in-Furness during July.

Since the outbreak was uncovered 10 days ago, more than 1,250 people have been tested for the disease - equivalent to more than one in 60 people living in the Cumbrian port town. Legionnaires' disease earned its name in 1976 after an outbreak of pneumonia at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia, from which 29 people died.