The number of deaths attributed to an outbreak of Legionnaire's disease in Gennessee County, Mich., associated with the Flint water crisis, has risen to 12.
During a 17-month window from 2014 to 2015, 91 cases of the infection were reported in association with Flint's switch from Detroit's water system to the Flint River. In the ensuing months thousands of incidents of lead poisoning in children were reported, along with a number of other health issues linked to the water, including the Legionnella outbreak.
Ten deaths associated with the outbreak were initially reported. Eden Wells, MD, chief medical executive for the Michigan Department of Health told Detroit Free Press that the two new cases were previously unreported due to a computer error between a hospital and the state.
While a definitive link between the water-switch and the outbreak hasn't been established, the timeline of the first infections coincides with the period where Flint began to draw its water from the river, and more than half of the infected individuals had a laboratory-confirmed common source of exposure.