Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Children sickened by bacteria in Belgium
Written by Carol Pomeday
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 20:03
Officials scrambling to find source of cryptosporidium, E. coli that has stricken youngsters from same neighborhood
At least five young children who live within a one-block area of Grand Avenue and Highland Drive in the Village of Belgium have been sickened with bacterial infections, including two confirmed cases and one suspected case of E. coli and one case of cryptosporidium. The others had C. difficile, a more common intestinal infection that may cause diarrhea and cramping.
The cause or causes of the infections are still a mystery.
Parents are frustrated, believing not enough is being done to find the source and prevent further illnesses, while village and county officials say pinpointing the cause is difficult.
So far, no adults have reported being ill.
?Right now, we don?t have evidence there is an outbreak, but we are investigating,? said Glenda Madlom, the Ozaukee County Public Health Department director who was notified by doctors of the E. coli and crytosporidium cases
On Friday, Jan. 15, Belgium Public Works Director Dan Birenbaum took water samples from the faucets at three homes where children were reported sick. Tests showed the samples were safe as was water from the municipal supply, he said.
On Tuesday, Jeff Bell of the Ozaukee County Land Management and Water Conservation Department checked the area and surrounding farm fields for possible manure or septic contamination and found none, said Andy Holschbach, director of the department.
In the meantime, neighbors are keeping their children indoors, forbidding them to play in the snow. Some are drinking only bottled water and everyone is washing their hands frequently and scrubbing their homes.
?There is something out there. Something is going on,? said Amanda Strong, whose 2-year-old son Andrew has been hospitalized with E. coli since Jan. 11 at Children?s Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa. He has had a blood transfusion, but his blood cell count is still low, his mother said.
Strong believes her daughter Ashley, 6, was also infected with E. coli in December but had a less severe case.
?Children 5 and under are at high risk,? said Strong, who is a nurse and has been at her son?s side the entire time.
?They think Andrew is going to be OK because we got here quickly, but his blood cell count must get higher before he can go home. He?s exhausted and will have to learn to walk again. He was potty trained, but now he?s not. He just lays there.?
Strong took her son to Children?s Hospital the day after he had symptoms, not wanting him to get as sick as her neighbor?s 4-year-old son Tyson Becker, who had kidney failure and needed dialysis and two blood transfusions.
Strong?s daughter Ashley was the first to become sick on Dec. 11, suffering severe cramps and bloody diarrhea. She recovered within a few days.
On Monday, Dec. 14, Tyson, who had played with Ashley, became ill, his mother Cara Becker said.
She initially thought he had the flu, perhaps H1N1, but by 8 p.m. Tuesday he was vomiting every 15 minutes and had diarrhea. The next morning, she took him to a medical clinic. The boy was seen by a doctor, who said he had a stomach infection, but didn?t take a stool sample. They got home at 11 a.m. and by 1 p.m. Tyson had vomited three times, Becker said.
?By 3 p.m, I told my husband, ?We need to take him to Children?s Hospital. Something?s wrong,?? Becker said. ?Of course, he was dehydrated. They gave him an IV and he seemed to perk up.
?We got home at 9 p.m. and by 11 p.m., he was vomiting every 15 minutes again. I woke my husband up at 3 a.m. and said, ?Something major is wrong.? By this time, I knew he may have been exposed to E. coli.?
When she told her pediatrician, the doctor advised her to go to Children?s Hospital.
Tyson was admitted Wednesday, Dec. 16. His kidneys began to fail Friday and by Saturday he was put on dialysis. He was in the hospital until Jan. 5.
?It was a three-week nightmare,? Becker said. ?He couldn?t walk because he had been in bed for three weeks. He was told he had to walk before he could go home. He?s such a trooper. He?s still weak but doing much better.?
The Beckers? two other sons, Haiden, 6, and Brock, 1, did not get sick.
The boys aren?t allowed to play outside or with other children in the neighborhood, Becker said.
In the meantime, Emily and Greg Golden?s children Chris, 8, and Katie, 6, also became ill. Both had C. difficile and Chris also had cryptosporidium.
?It?s not something that?s in the air. It?s something that you ingest and it?s spread through contact,? Emily Golden said. ?We want it investigated to prevent anyone else from getting sick. I want nothing more than to learn it?s a freak thing.
?As a resident of Belgium, I don?t want anything to be in the water, but I want it thoroughly investigated. We just want to raise the alarm to find out if other people are getting sick and if we should widen the search.?
Golden said the family has two cats, but the litter box is in the basement and the children don?t touch it. Her family is now drinking bottled water.
Strong also has two cats, which tested negative for E. coli and other bacteria, but the animals were quarantined as a precaution.
Strong and Becker believe the snow somehow became contaminated with E. coli and want someone to thoroughly test the snow and soil. They are also concerned about the water in three nearby retention ponds.
?It?s our theory that there is something in the snow because they were outside together and Amanda remembers seeing Ashley and Tyson eat the snow,? Becker said.
A farmer drove a tractor on their road and left a lot of mud, Strong said. She thought the mud might have been contaminated with manure, but Holschbach said the farmer told him he had not spread manure on the field he rents for several months. He harvested half his corn crop in late fall, Holschbach said.
?How many animals eat out of that field?? Strong asked. ?It wasn?t just a few tire marks of mud. It was a copious amount.?
Strong sent snow from her yard to Mark Borchardt, an environmental microbiology and water-borne disease research scientist at the Marshfield Clinic Science Foundation, who tested it for her. The sample tested negative for E. coli and cryptosporidium, Borchardt said.
?I don?t know if it?s environmental or not. There is no evidence to point to the snow or manure, but it?s plausible,? Borchardt said. ?There are many ways you can pick up E. coli. I feel for Mrs. Strong. I have children also. We thought we would help out and sample the snow for free.
?In an investigation like this, even in a water-borne outbreak when many people get sick, it?s really difficult to identify the agent. As odd as it is for all the children to be on the same street, one still has to consider that these could be independent events. Now that it?s reached the press, there might be more people who come forward and say, ?I?ve been sick.??
He said it?s unlikely that the source is the municipal water supply because the water is treated and more people would have gotten sick.
?It?s my experience that children with cryptosporidium usually get it from contact with a cat or the cat?s drinking water,? Borchardt said.
Village President Kevin Kowalkowski said he?s waiting for the Health Department to complete its investigation.
?We tested all the water and it?s fine,? he said. ?There is not much else we can do at this time.?
http://www.ozaukeepress.com/index.p...ned-by-bacteria-in-belgium&catid=49:feature-1
Written by Carol Pomeday
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 20:03
Officials scrambling to find source of cryptosporidium, E. coli that has stricken youngsters from same neighborhood
At least five young children who live within a one-block area of Grand Avenue and Highland Drive in the Village of Belgium have been sickened with bacterial infections, including two confirmed cases and one suspected case of E. coli and one case of cryptosporidium. The others had C. difficile, a more common intestinal infection that may cause diarrhea and cramping.
The cause or causes of the infections are still a mystery.
Parents are frustrated, believing not enough is being done to find the source and prevent further illnesses, while village and county officials say pinpointing the cause is difficult.
So far, no adults have reported being ill.
?Right now, we don?t have evidence there is an outbreak, but we are investigating,? said Glenda Madlom, the Ozaukee County Public Health Department director who was notified by doctors of the E. coli and crytosporidium cases
On Friday, Jan. 15, Belgium Public Works Director Dan Birenbaum took water samples from the faucets at three homes where children were reported sick. Tests showed the samples were safe as was water from the municipal supply, he said.
On Tuesday, Jeff Bell of the Ozaukee County Land Management and Water Conservation Department checked the area and surrounding farm fields for possible manure or septic contamination and found none, said Andy Holschbach, director of the department.
In the meantime, neighbors are keeping their children indoors, forbidding them to play in the snow. Some are drinking only bottled water and everyone is washing their hands frequently and scrubbing their homes.
?There is something out there. Something is going on,? said Amanda Strong, whose 2-year-old son Andrew has been hospitalized with E. coli since Jan. 11 at Children?s Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa. He has had a blood transfusion, but his blood cell count is still low, his mother said.
Strong believes her daughter Ashley, 6, was also infected with E. coli in December but had a less severe case.
?Children 5 and under are at high risk,? said Strong, who is a nurse and has been at her son?s side the entire time.
?They think Andrew is going to be OK because we got here quickly, but his blood cell count must get higher before he can go home. He?s exhausted and will have to learn to walk again. He was potty trained, but now he?s not. He just lays there.?
Strong took her son to Children?s Hospital the day after he had symptoms, not wanting him to get as sick as her neighbor?s 4-year-old son Tyson Becker, who had kidney failure and needed dialysis and two blood transfusions.
Strong?s daughter Ashley was the first to become sick on Dec. 11, suffering severe cramps and bloody diarrhea. She recovered within a few days.
On Monday, Dec. 14, Tyson, who had played with Ashley, became ill, his mother Cara Becker said.
She initially thought he had the flu, perhaps H1N1, but by 8 p.m. Tuesday he was vomiting every 15 minutes and had diarrhea. The next morning, she took him to a medical clinic. The boy was seen by a doctor, who said he had a stomach infection, but didn?t take a stool sample. They got home at 11 a.m. and by 1 p.m. Tyson had vomited three times, Becker said.
?By 3 p.m, I told my husband, ?We need to take him to Children?s Hospital. Something?s wrong,?? Becker said. ?Of course, he was dehydrated. They gave him an IV and he seemed to perk up.
?We got home at 9 p.m. and by 11 p.m., he was vomiting every 15 minutes again. I woke my husband up at 3 a.m. and said, ?Something major is wrong.? By this time, I knew he may have been exposed to E. coli.?
When she told her pediatrician, the doctor advised her to go to Children?s Hospital.
Tyson was admitted Wednesday, Dec. 16. His kidneys began to fail Friday and by Saturday he was put on dialysis. He was in the hospital until Jan. 5.
?It was a three-week nightmare,? Becker said. ?He couldn?t walk because he had been in bed for three weeks. He was told he had to walk before he could go home. He?s such a trooper. He?s still weak but doing much better.?
The Beckers? two other sons, Haiden, 6, and Brock, 1, did not get sick.
The boys aren?t allowed to play outside or with other children in the neighborhood, Becker said.
In the meantime, Emily and Greg Golden?s children Chris, 8, and Katie, 6, also became ill. Both had C. difficile and Chris also had cryptosporidium.
?It?s not something that?s in the air. It?s something that you ingest and it?s spread through contact,? Emily Golden said. ?We want it investigated to prevent anyone else from getting sick. I want nothing more than to learn it?s a freak thing.
?As a resident of Belgium, I don?t want anything to be in the water, but I want it thoroughly investigated. We just want to raise the alarm to find out if other people are getting sick and if we should widen the search.?
Golden said the family has two cats, but the litter box is in the basement and the children don?t touch it. Her family is now drinking bottled water.
Strong also has two cats, which tested negative for E. coli and other bacteria, but the animals were quarantined as a precaution.
Strong and Becker believe the snow somehow became contaminated with E. coli and want someone to thoroughly test the snow and soil. They are also concerned about the water in three nearby retention ponds.
?It?s our theory that there is something in the snow because they were outside together and Amanda remembers seeing Ashley and Tyson eat the snow,? Becker said.
A farmer drove a tractor on their road and left a lot of mud, Strong said. She thought the mud might have been contaminated with manure, but Holschbach said the farmer told him he had not spread manure on the field he rents for several months. He harvested half his corn crop in late fall, Holschbach said.
?How many animals eat out of that field?? Strong asked. ?It wasn?t just a few tire marks of mud. It was a copious amount.?
Strong sent snow from her yard to Mark Borchardt, an environmental microbiology and water-borne disease research scientist at the Marshfield Clinic Science Foundation, who tested it for her. The sample tested negative for E. coli and cryptosporidium, Borchardt said.
?I don?t know if it?s environmental or not. There is no evidence to point to the snow or manure, but it?s plausible,? Borchardt said. ?There are many ways you can pick up E. coli. I feel for Mrs. Strong. I have children also. We thought we would help out and sample the snow for free.
?In an investigation like this, even in a water-borne outbreak when many people get sick, it?s really difficult to identify the agent. As odd as it is for all the children to be on the same street, one still has to consider that these could be independent events. Now that it?s reached the press, there might be more people who come forward and say, ?I?ve been sick.??
He said it?s unlikely that the source is the municipal water supply because the water is treated and more people would have gotten sick.
?It?s my experience that children with cryptosporidium usually get it from contact with a cat or the cat?s drinking water,? Borchardt said.
Village President Kevin Kowalkowski said he?s waiting for the Health Department to complete its investigation.
?We tested all the water and it?s fine,? he said. ?There is not much else we can do at this time.?
http://www.ozaukeepress.com/index.p...ned-by-bacteria-in-belgium&catid=49:feature-1