Michigan Officials Decided Not To Test Flint’s Water For Deadly Bacteria

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/02/25/3753425/flint-legionnaires-untested/
"Lead-contaminated water isn’t the only toxin sickening residents of Flint, Michigan. Since the city switched its water source from Detroit’s water system to the local Flint River in April 2014 — a water source left dangerously untreated for corrosive elements — the city has seen a sizable uptick in cases of Legionnaires disease. The waterborne bacterial infection, which usually afflicts around 13 people a year in Flint’s Genessee County, has infected at least 87 residents — and left ten dead — since June 2014. However, no state or federal agency has decided to test the water for the deadly bacteria. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) announced this spike in Legionnaires cases last month, but refused to directly connect the outbreak to the water crisis. “There’s investigations still going on to try and make that determination,” Snyder said at the January 13 press conference. “But from a scientific or medical point of view, I don’t believe that determination can be made today.” According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, these cases cannot be conclusively linked to Flint’s water because the agency lacks bacteria samples from the patients. This claim was quickly negated by Detroit News reporters, who discovered that the agency in fact has 12 samples from Flint patients."