By MATTHEW RALPH
Matthew.Ralph@newsandtribune.com
September 27, 2007 11:43 am
—
Health officials say the timing of a class trip by Galena students to a petting zoo and a recall of infected meat by a New Jersey food company rule both out as possible sources of an E. coli infection that has sickened at least 13 youth from Floyd County.
And while officials stopped short of officially voiding any possibilities, county health officer Dr. Tom Harris characterized as good news a report that the cluster of cases does not appear to be spreading.
“There have been no additional cases reported in the last 36 hours,” Harris said at a news conference held Wednesday afternoon at the Floyd County Health Department.
There have, however, been some isolated cases in the Midwest officials are looking into, Harris said, including one in Nelson County, Ky., and a cluster of six cases linked to an El Rancherito restaurant in Illinois.
“At this point, the job is to cast the widest possible net,” Harris said.
Detailed questionnaires have been distributed to identify common links between the cases and tips from parents have been followed, but none have led to the source, Harris said.
Six Galena Elementary School students and a sibling of a Galena student who attends a Georgetown day care have had laboratory confirmations of E. coli 0157:H7, the most lethal of hundreds of known strains of the bacterial infection.
Harris said the timing of the initial cases — the most recent cases first started showing symptoms Sept. 17 — means any secondary cases already would have begun showing symptoms. Persons typically become ill within three to four days of exposure to E. coli.
“If they were going to be exposed, they would show symptoms by now,” Harris said.
All seven of the infected children remained hospitalized at Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville on Wednesday, Harris said. Another six cases involving Galena students are suspected.
Some, like 6-year-old Sidney Jacobi, have experienced kidney failure caused by hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS.
A family member told The Evening News and Tribune on Wednesday that the first-grader had surgery Tuesday evening to be placed on kidney dialysis.
The names, ages and grade levels of the children and their specific conditions are being withheld in accordance with privacy laws.
Measures including mandatory hand washing and frequent cleaning of the school are still in place, school officials said. Another letter was sent home Wednesday with all students in the 11,000-student New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp.
Some families still aren’t convinced of the school’s safety, as evidenced by school attendance.
School officials reported 74 absences on Wednesday at 400-student Galena Elementary, 19 more than the day before. There were 43 absences reported on Monday. Both numbers are more than normal.
Harris — who attended his son’s Cub Scout pack meeting at the school Tuesday evening — said the safety of the school was not even a question in his mind.
“It was a very clean building to begin with,” Harris said, adding later that the kitchen was spotless when it was inspected by health officials last week.
Pam Wright, the school corporation’s director of food services, said all meat served in New Albany-Floyd County school cafeterias is cooked before it reaches the school.
“We’re not bringing in any raw meat,” Wright said. “We bring in convenience items just like those you buy at Kroger and heat them to the appropriate temperature for health codes.”
Harris said fresh leafy vegetables served in salads were an unlikely source. Earlier this month, Dole Food Co. recalled certain prepackaged lettuce and bagged salads in the U.S. and Canada after a sample in a Canadian grocery store tested positive.
“Salad isn’t a primary staple for children that age,” he said.
A trip to a local petting zoo also is an unlikely source, Harris said, because some children began showing symptoms at the time of the trip. He gave a similar response when asked about a report of contaminated Topps brand hamburgers that led to a voluntary recall by the New Jersey-based company on Tuesday.
Two state epidemiologists — scientists who study the frequency and distribution of diseases — are assisting the local health department in finding the source, a task health officials said could take weeks, if it’s ever discovered at all.
Pam Pontones, director of surveillance and investigation for the Indiana Department of Health, said the investigation involves collecting as much information as possible and “putting the pieces together,” using factual and statistical analysis.
“The timing varies,” she said. “It could take a couple of days or a couple of weeks. It depends on how quickly we are able to get information from people who have been infected and how quickly we can get lab results.”
Pontones said the Floyd County investigation is still in the information-gathering phase.
The cluster of cases is the first concentrated report of E. coli infections in the state since 10 cases linked to a national outbreak involving infected fresh spinach were reported a year ago, Pontones said.
A total of 77 cases were reported in Indiana last year. About 73,000 cases of infection and 61 deaths occur nationwide each year, according to a 1999 estimate by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Earlier this week, a Web site that tracks national
E. coli cases referenced a 1998 outbreak in a southeast Washington state elementary school in a post linking to news coverage of the Floyd County incident.
The case — which led to a $4.6 million judgment on behalf of the victims three years later — involved 11 children who were sickened by E. coli 0157:H7 in undercooked taco meat served at the school’s cafeteria.
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