State of Emergency Declared As Legionnaires’ Disease Spikes in Flint Michigan
As if Flint, Michigan needed more problems other than an economic depression which has left the city a virtual wasteland, Flint is now the scene of a massive poisoned water scandal that has seen lead flooding the city’s drinking water supplies. Now, on top of the water emergency, a sharp increase in Legionnaires’ disease is hitting the community.
State officials were forced to admit at a press conference on Wednesday that there was indeed an uptick in the cases of Legionnaires’ disease and that they have “yet to determine the cause of the disease.” Chief medical executive of the Michigan department of health and human services said that a more thorough analysis was in the works. Officials gave no new advice to Flint residents regarding their water usage in relation to the Legionnaires’ uptick. RT reports that “between June 2014 and November 2015, there were 87 cases of Legionnaires’ disease in Flint, with 10 ending in death, according to Wells. The fatality rate for the disease ranges from 5-30% depending on access to antibiotics and other factors, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.”
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As Kahlil AlHajal writes for MLive.com:
From June 2014 to March 2015, 45 cases of Legionella bacteria were confirmed in Genesee County, according to the state Health and Human Services Department Director Nick Lyon.Seven of those cases were fatal.From May 2015 to November 2015, 42 cases were confirmed in Genesee county.
Three of those were fatal.Chief Medical Executive for the Health and Human Services Department Eden Wells said “87 cases is a lot. That tells us that there is a source there that needs to be investigated.”
The lead poisoning of Flint’s water began in April 2014 when the city’s drinking water was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The water from Flint River was sent to a city water treatment plant but the facility neglected to check the water’s salt levels which would eventually cause the lead pipes to corrode. This led to the high presence of the toxic substance in the city’s drinking water.
It is noteworthy that the change of water sources was noticed by Flint residents immediately. Yet while they complained of bad smells and bad tastes after the water sources changed it was not until October 2015 that the Department of Environmental Quality admitted that it was responsible for the lead poisoning because it did not add the necessary chemicals that would have combated the corrosion of the pipes.
Flint’s water source was switched back to Lake Huron in October. Unfortunately, the water is still poisoned.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder declared a State of Emergency in early January and activated the Michigan Army National Guard to work with the Michigan State Police and other officials on Tuesday. Emergency personnel will be dispensing bottled water, filters and test kits door-to-door. Parents of children six years or younger are being encouraged to go to the hospital to have their blood tested for lead exposure.
This article (State of Emergency Declared As Legionnaires’ Disease Spikes in Flint Michigan) can be republished under this share-alike Creative Commons license with  attribution to Brandon Turbeville, the article link and Natural Blaze.com.
Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, and The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President. Turbeville has published over 600 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.
