E.coli Death Spraks Fear In Canadian Town
Parents with
children in New Brunswick day-care centers were gripped with fear, after
one toddler died from an E.coli bacterial infection and four other children
tested positive for the bacteria.
The strain
of the bacteria, E.coli 0157:H7, is the same that killed seven people in
Walkerton, Ontario, last year and sent more than 2,000 to area hospitals
with symptoms that included vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever.
The 22-month-old
child, who died in Saint John on Saturday, first became ill on Nov. 27,
and was later hospitalized. After he was diagnosed with E.coli, other children
at the YM-YWCA day-care center he had attended were examined, and four
have since tested positive.
Ann Ralph,
who runs the day-care center, said health inspectors had also examined
the center's facilities, including the water and the kitchen, and have
found that the outbreak had not originated there. A total of 60 children
and staff at two affiliated centers have so far been examined. Ralph said
that if the infection had originated at the centers, all 60 people would
have been infected.
E.coli is also
known to spread through food such as unpasteurized milk, undercooked ground
beef and lettuce. Dr Wayne MacDonald, the provincial chief medical officer
of health, said the bacteria can spread through hand-to-mouth contacts,
particularly in day-care centers where an infected child may handle or
bite a toy that is then handled by another child.
New Brunswick's
Health Minister Elvy Robichaud told the provincial Legislature on Tuesday
that she was confident proper sanitary procedures were being followed at
day-care centers in her jurisdiction when the outbreak began. Test results
were still coming in.
The latest
outbreak followed reports in southern Ontario that isolated cases of E.coli
infection had been discovered over the past few months in several towns
including Windsor, on the U.S,-Canadian border, and doctors were trying
to determine whether they were linked
In no case
was the infection believed to have come from drinking water, and researchers
have been trying to determine whether there was a common source, such as
contaminated ground beef or lettuce, but the survey has proven difficult
because the infections were slow-moving and spread over a wide area.
The epidemic
that killed seven people in Ontario last year was concentrated in the rural
community of Walkerton, where the water-supply system was contaminated
when the chlorination system in one of the town's wells broke down. A subsequent
probe indicated that the bacteria might have originated in a nearby farm,
where cattle manure either seeped into the ground water or was carried
to the town's well by heavy rainfall.
An investigation
in October 2000 by the Toronto Star found some 100,000 of Ontario's estimated
750,000 wells, many of which were very old, might be similarly infected
because they were not properly plugged.
Ontario Environment
Ministry official Warren Lusk told the Star, "The onus is on the well owners
to plug and seal them off."
In June this
year, Ontario health officials decided to close three Toronto beaches after
a high count of E.coli bacteria was found in the water.
There is no
known cure for E.coli, but one University of Saskatchewan institute said
it had developed a new vaccine that could drastically reduce the bacteria
count in the intestines of infected cattle. An official at the institute
said it was trying to get approval for the vaccine to be produced on a
large scale.
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