Timeline for Daycare E. coli Outbreak
Questions are being raised about the public health response to the Fletch Home Daycare E. coli outbreak in Vancouver, Washington, that has tragically claimed the life of a 4-year-old boy.
Clark County Health Officer Dr. Alan Melnick told the Associated Press that officials allowed the state-licensed daycare to continue operating for two weeks after the first child victim was confirmed to have an infection of E. coli O157:H7. The daycare remained open until at least two more children fell sick.
The daycare toddler who died in the outbreak was the fourth to get sick and Melnick isn't saying which day the boy was hospitalized. The home daycare operated by Dianne and Larry Fletch was finally closed April 2. The little boy's E. coli death was reported to authorities seven days later.
Melnick told the AP that he didn't shut down the business until April 2 out of concern that other parents who used the facility could take their children to different day cares and risk exposing others.
- On March 19, a laboratory reports the first case to health officials, after stool sample of a daycare attendee tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.
- On March 26, the same doctor who treated the first child reported a second case. That day, health officials inspect the facility but didn't "find anything alarming." Health officials begin contacting staff and parents of all the children to pinpoint the source.
- About March 29, the mother of a third child called health officials reporting symptoms. Health officials did another inspection that day and didn't find any specific problems.
- The boy who died was the fourth child to be hospitalized.
- On March 30, health officials took stool samples from 22 children and 4 adults. When it got results back showing that E. coli had spread there to seven more children and staff, it closed the facility on April 2.
- On April 9, officials were notified of the 4-year-old boy's death. The three other children hospitalized in the outbreak recovered well enough to go home.
