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(MLive.com file photo)

FLINT, MI -- Pneumonia deaths nearly doubled in Genesee County during the years that the city was using the Flint River for drinking water, a published report by Bridge Magazine says.

The report, published on the Bridge website, says the rising number of deaths from pneumonia in 2014 and 2015 supports the suspicion among medical experts that many of the cases were actually Legionnaires' disease that went undiagnosed by hospitals and local health officials.

MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach the state Department of Health and Human Services or the Genesee County Health Department for further comment, but Bridge says HHS confirmed that 87 people died in the county from pneumonia in 2015 and 90 more in 2014, the year state-appointed emergency managers switched the source of Flint's drinking water.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality never required the city to treat the river water during that time to make it less corrosive, causing lead to leach from home plumbing and service lines.

Flint continued to use the river from April 2014 until October 2015 even as lead levels spiked and problems with bacteria and chlorine byproducts lingered.

Pneumonia deaths in 2014 and 2015 marked a dramatic rise from 53 deaths in 2013, Bridge reported, representing the highest increase in Michigan and a sharp increase from previous years, before the water switch.

Legionnaires' is a respiratory disease caused by the Legionella bacteria. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sometimes the bacteria cause a serious type of pneumonia called Legionnaires' disease. The bacteria can also cause a less serious infection called Pontiac fever that has symptoms similar to a mild case of the flu, the CDC says.

Medical experts told Bridge there is no way to know how many of the pneumonia cases were Legionnaires' because neither McLaren-Flint hospital, county or state health officials ordered routine testing of pneumonia patients for the disease.

Health officials have said 12 people are recognized as having died from Legionnaires' disease during the time Flint was using the Flint River and roughly 80 were sickened.

Investigators have suspected a connection between the water change and outbreak, but the have been unable to definitively prove or disprove their belief.