Health officials in Colorado are investigating an E. coli outbreak among children in Eagle County. Several cases have been confirmed in children under 5. The county is focusing on swimming pools and child-care centers in its investigation.
In the summer of 1998, 26 children became ill from E. coli O157:H7 contracted while playing in the kiddie pool at White Water Park, a commercial water park in suburban Atlanta. Seven of those children were hospitalized and a 2-year-old boy died from hemolytic uremic syndrome, a kidney disorder caused by E. coli O157:H7.
In August of 2000, the Kindercare facility located on Lexington Drive in Folsom, California, was traced as the source of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. Health department officials who investigated the outbreak determined that the probable “index case” – a child who unknowingly brought the bacteria into the facility – experienced “explosive diarrhea at the daycare on the afternoon of 8-3-00.”