GENESEE COUNTY, MI - The Genesee County Health Department has announced two new cases of Legionnaires' disease.

The new cases raise the total to 14 for all of 2016, with the county health department working alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate all the cases.

Mark Valacak, Genesee County health officer, said the typical number of cases per year is between 9 and 13 on the state's budget and reporting calendar -- Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

"We're working closely with the CDC, we're reviewing all the cases with them," he said, noting several of the cases this year involved residents that were current or former smokers, some with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. "We're identifying what, in terms of the time frame, when exposure resulted in disease."

The announcement comes exactly seven days after two additional cases were reported by the health department.

Patients are questioned to figure out where they live and their water source, whether the disease may have been caused by a health care related exposure, if they've traveled, or had exposure to hot tubs, swimming pools, fountains, tall buildings, or cooling towers.

Valacak believes the latest cases are not health care related, and both patients' main water source is not the city of Flint.

Concern about Legionnaires' disease was elevated after an outbreak in Genesee County when 12 people died and dozens of others were sickened amid the city's water crisis.

No direct connection between the city's water crisis and the spread of the illness has been confirmed.

The outbreak led a closer relationship between the infectious disease teams at the local major health care facilities -- McLaren, Genesys, and Hurley -- and the county health department since 2014 including a request to test pneumonia patients for Legionella, Valacak said.

"We've gotten great cooperation from the health care system in trying to investigate this and getting to the bottom of it if we can," he said.

More information on Legionnaires' disease can be found of the Genesee County Health Department website here.