E. coli outbreak linked to Colorado day care

According to Fox31, fourteen are ill with pathogenic E. coli after an outbreak at the Little Sailors Child Development center in Northglenn, CO. The health officials say that it’s "less severe"; press reports that it’s a mild strain. Seems a bit weird to me. Thirteen kids and a staff member ill with pathogenic E. coli (not sure what kind) seems pretty serious. Especially when the owner’s son displayed symptoms for over a month.

The Tri-County Health Department has announced that 14 people, 13 children and a teacher have been diagnosed with a mild strain of E. coli.
"It appears less severe," said Richard Vogt, M.D., with Tri-County. "We have to see how this plays out."
Saker Sus, the owner of Little Sailors, said his own son was showing symptoms for over a month.
Sus says his center is separating the children that show symptoms. "The reason we’re not sending them home is because we don’t want the parents to take them to a different child-care setting and spread the disease around."

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.