This is what Trondheim municipality writes in a press release. During the last four weeks, two children in Munkvoll nursery school have become ill and have been admitted to hospital due to the disease-causing variant of the E.coli bacterium. The nursery school is now closed and several tests have been carried out at St. Olav’s hospital. Parents and guardians in the kindergarten have received a letter from the municipality. Can be dangerous E.coli is a bacterium that forms an important part of the normal flora in the colon in humans. It does not usually cause disease, but there are variants of the bacterium that produce toxins. These can cause severe diarrhea in both children and adults. People can become infected through contaminated drinking water or food that has not been heat-treated, writes Store Norske Leksikon. The municipality also writes that in rare cases the bacterium can cause the serious complication hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) with, among other things, kidney failure and symptoms such as increasingly weakened general condition, reduced urine output, pallor, irritability and impaired consciousness. Convulsions can also occur Infection control supervisor Eli Sagvik. Photo: Arne Kristian Gansmo / news Taking samples from everyone The municipality writes that the most important thing now is to find out if there are more people who are infected and to prevent new cases of infection from occurring – Samples are therefore taken from all children and staff in the nursery, and Munkvoll kindergarten will be temporarily closed. The children, regardless of symptoms, must have a negative test for the E.coli bacteria, EHEC, before they can return to the nursery, says infection control specialist Eli Sagvik. The municipality is collaborating with the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, St. Olav’s Hospital and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in the investigation of the outbreak. The national reference laboratory at the Institute of Public Health will examine the samples to find out whether the bacteria detected in the children are identical.
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