'How could this happen?' A look at the E. coli outbreak in Calgary daycares
CTV
Parents started showing up at Calgary hospitals with sick children on Sept. 1, the Friday before the Labour Day weekend.
Parents started showing up at Calgary hospitals with sick children on Sept. 1, the Friday before the Labour Day weekend.
The numbers grew on Saturday.
By Sunday, as more and more children fell ill, the first case of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, or STEC, came back positive.
"It confirmed what our suspicion was," said Dr. Stephen Freedman, an emergency medicine physician at Alberta Children's Hospital who researches STEC infections at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine.
"It was not one or two a day, but 25-30 kids a day. By Sunday, 50 kids."
The E. coli outbreak, declared on Sept. 4, led to at least 448 infections — 39 children and one adult were hospitalized for severe illness. Another 32 secondary cases have also been linked.
It became the largest known outbreak in children under five, said Freedman.
