Ecoli outbreak at nursery

Last updated 08:22, Thursday, 26 June 2008

FOUR children from a Furness nursery have been diagnosed with E coli.

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The three and four years olds, who all attend Happy Tots Day Nursery’s pre-school section, have been infected with E coli O157. Another classmate from the Abbey Road nursery’s pre-school is also suspected of having the bug.

Health chiefs confirmed one child was receiving hospital treatment in Manchester, while another was assessed and discharged at FGH.

The pre-school has been closed as a precaution because of the risk of the infection spreading, but the rest of the nursery remains open. The outbreak of the potentially fatal infection is being jointly investigated by Barrow Borough Council, the Health Protection Agency and Cumbrian Health Services.

Experts say at this stage they do not know the origin of the outbreak, but they say there is nothing to suggest it is food-related. They believe it has come from outside the nursery.

The pre-school has around 60 children who will all be tested for the infection before they are allowed to return.

A decision about when the pre-school will reopen will be taken on Friday. Doctor Nigel Calvert, a consultant in communicable disease control, who is investigating the outbreak, said: “We are working closely with our colleagues at Barrow Borough Council Environmental Health and our NHS colleagues in investigating the outbreak.

“We have taken the precautionary step of closing the pre-school part of the nursery since all the cases have been in that facility. All parents have been contacted and given advice. We are keeping a very close eye on the situation.”

The first two cases of E coli were confirmed at the end of last week after lab tests.

Dr Calvert told the Evening Mail: “We are working on the hypothesis that it has been brought in from outside the nursery. The numbers are small, we have acted swiftly to stop the transmission. There are no cases at all in the other age groups.”

Parents of children attending the nursery have received letters and information about E coli O157. Some parents contacted the Mail concerned about the other nursery rooms remaining open.

Health chiefs told the Mail that other parts of the nursery can stay open as the pre-school is a separate facility with separate staff and toilets. Happy Tots owner Sheila Stephenson said: “I would like to confirm that we have had four cases of diarrhoea in the preschool section of the nursery. As soon as this was brought to our attention we have been working closely with the Environmental Health Department and their representative Dr Nigel Calvert. The infection in question has now been confirmed as E Coli 0157.

“Although we are not being held responsible for the situation we felt that it was paramount to act swiftly to ensure that we were doing everything we could to eliminate any risk of transferring this problem to others, we decided that it would be better if we took steps to separate our pre-school children from one another.

“We made the decision to close the pre-school section of the nursery for the rest of the week; all other parts of the nursery remain open as usual. The welfare and wellbeing of all our children is of the utmost importance to us and although we were devastated to find ourselves in this position our first priority was to our parents/guardians and our children.

“I would like to confirm that during a conversation that I personally had with Dr Nigel Calvert on the 24 June, he said: ‘In his opinion after visiting the nursery, the nursery was not the cause of the infection; he also said that he feels the infection was brought into the nursery from an unidentified source.’

“As always we will continue to promote and apply the highest standard of hygiene throughout the nursery. This is evident in the five star certificate that we have received from the Environmental Health Department. We achieved this for our excellent hygiene / food preparation and cleanliness within our kitchen. We are keeping all our parents/guardians informed on a regular basis.

“We will be reviewing the current situation with Dr Nigel Calvert and the Environmental Health Department on Friday.”

Parents of children at the pre-school have been asked to look out for symptoms of diarrhoea.

Parents are told to contact their doctor if their child has the symptoms. Children that have diarrhoea should stay off nursery for 48 hours after the last episode of diarrhoea. If E coli O157 is confirmed the child must have two negative stool samples before they can return to nursery.