Although an uptick in Legionnaires' disease in Flint, Mich., in 2014 that led to 10 deaths and more than 80 cases of infection hasn't been definitively linked with the water system switch that led to the city's lead poisoning crisis, McLaren Regional Medical Center officials have confirmed finding the bacteria responsible for the illness in their water supply as far back as 2014.
"We were concerned that the city water was the source of it," Don Kooy, president of McLarenHospital, told the Associated Press. "But to this day I don't think we could make a definitive statement."
In April 2014, the city began drawing its water from the Flint River, rather than Detroit's water system, which pulls its supply from Lake Huron. Since then hundreds of cases of lead poisoning in children have been reported, and although the water was switched back October 2014, massive corrosion to the piping in Flint has left the water still unsafe to drink. A disease specialist advising McLaren on the Legionnaires' outbreak that coincided with the switch told Fox News that a there was likely a causative link between the infections and the river water.