Aisne: the prefecture announces three new cases of food poisoning

Three new cases of food poisoning in children were recorded this Saturday, June 21, announced the Aisne prefecture, bringing to 14 the total number of children taken into care since June 12, including a 12-year-old girl who died on Monday .

All of these children, the majority of whom live in the Saint-Quentin area, suffered from severe digestive problems with mucous and bloody diarrhea, according to the prefecture.

Among them, eight developed a serious kidney problem, called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), including two among the new cases recorded on Saturday.

"Four children were able to leave the hospital and return home," and all affected children "are receiving ongoing medical monitoring," the prefecture added in a statement.

State services, including the prefecture and the Regional Health Agency, "are continuing their investigations to find the origin of the contamination," according to the press release.

On Friday, she announced that samples had been taken from four butcher shops in Saint-Quentin, all of which had been closed as a precaution. The results, at least for the first two butcher shops, should be available early next week.

However, these four butcher shops do not have a common supplier, according to a spokesperson for the Aisne prefecture interviewed by AFP, which risks complicating the search for the origin of the contamination.

Samples were also taken from the butcher's section of a supermarket, which was also closed as a precaution, the prefecture said on Saturday.

A rare infectious disease, "most often foodborne," HUS occurs in most cases as a complication of poisoning by a bacterium from the Escherichia coli (E. coli) family. It affects 100 to 165 children in France each year, according to Public Health France.