E. coli Outbreak: Paulette's Day Care in Tennessee
We contacted the Tennessee Department of Health today to verify information regarding the E. coli outbreak at Paulette's Group Day Care in Lafayette, Tennessee. Although the E. coli outbreak is still under investigation, Tennessee health officials believe that one child infected with E. coli outside of Paulette's Group Day Care attended the day care while sick with E. coli poisoning. Exposure to this child infected eight (8) other children from the day care. A sibling of one of the other 9 children has also been infected with E. coli.
Four (4) of the infected children are hospitalized. According to a story in The Tennessean, a doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital stated that one child is being treated for kidney failure; two, for reduced kidney function; and one, for severe diarrhea.(1) Young children, such as those sickened by this outbreak, are more likely to have severe symptoms of E. coli poisoning, including a complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, in which the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail. In the United States, hemolytic uremic syndrome is the principal cause of acute kidney failure in children, and most cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome are caused by E. coli O157:H7.(2)
The Tennessee Department of Health asked us to remind parents to keep sick children home, particularly if the children have symptoms of an E. coli infection. E. coli symptoms include watery or bloody diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, nausea, and vomiting. Illness may be mild or severe.
Sources:
- Claudia Pinto, "10 children sickened by E. coli; four hospitalized," The Tennessean, June 28, 2006.
- CDC E. coli Fact Sheet.
