This bacteria is feared and formidable in the event of food poisoning. It is the bacteria Escherichia coli, commonly called E. coli, who is at the origin of the death of a 12 -year -old child in Aisne. Since June 12, 18 children “have contracted a bacteria called an Escherichia coli,” announced on Sunday the Minister of Health Yannick Neuder during a press briefing in front of the Saint-Quentin hospital, after meeting caregivers and having maintained themselves with the family of the deceased girl and the mother of a hospitalized child.
Of the 18 cases, eight children are still hospitalized in Lille, Saint-Quentin, Reims and Amiens, six of which are under dialysis due to hemolytic and uremic syndrome (Shu), a serious kidney disease, added the minister. Conversely, “many patients, young children who have been affected, were able, after rehydration, identification of the bacteria, […] Going home and leading a normal life, “he said. Children currently under dialysis are “from a year and a half to 12-13 years old,” he said.
Four butcher shops closed as a precautionary
The authorities have deployed “more than 30 investigators, who are on site to go up the contamination chain, to be able to understand, explain and take the measures,” he continued. If the cause of contamination is not yet known with certainty, it is “probably a food infection on meat originally”, recalled Yannick Neuder. “The analyzes are underway to effectively have the formal link”.
Four butchers were closed as a precaution by the authorities, followed by the butcher’s rays of two supermarkets. “It is the whole sector, and in particular the supply of these butcher shops, which is also under study,” said Yannick Neuder. These butchers have no common supplier, a spokesperson for the Aisne prefecture at AFP said on Saturday, which may complicate the search for the origin of contamination.
The minister also announced the death, which occurred on Sunday morning, of a “little girl” who was followed in Saint-Quentin, but who would not have died from the bacteria because she had “a disease that has no connection with the episode”. She “will be autopsied as of (Monday) so that all things are well clarified,” he added.
