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Unknown illness strikes four
Children, who know one another, hospitalized
| Monday, May 7 2007 11:05 PM
Last Updated: Monday, May 7 2007 11:09 PM
At least one child has been put on dialysis and as many as three others have been hospitalized with symptoms similar to foodborne illnesses.
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But parents, doctors and public health officials don't know the reason behind the sickness.
At this point, all that's known is that the four children, who know one another from school or play dates, suffered bloody diarrhea after attending several parties and playing at a local park. Two have developed hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a condition marked by kidney failure, and have been transferred to hospitals outside Kern County.
The Kern County Department of Public Health is investigating but was hesitant to give details until the investigation was complete.
The department discovered Monday some of the children are positive for Shiga toxins, which can come from E. coli, said County Public Health Officer Dr. B.A. Jinadu.
"The test results are not very conclusive," Jinadu said. "It could be E. coli, but it is not definitive."
The health department is still trying to find the commonality between these cases.
Sick children
One of the children, a 6-year-old kindergartner at Ronald Reagan Elementary School, had perfect health before last week, said his father, who agreed to talk anonymously to The Californian.
As the father answered questions, his son was undergoing surgery at Children's Hospital Central California in Madera to get a central line catheter put in for dialysis.
The boy's kidney function was down to 10 percent of normal, the father said. He hadn't urinated since Wednesday.
The boy is listed in good condition, which means his vital signs are stable and he is conscious.
"Kern County Public Health has done a really poor job," said the father, who said the department had only talked to his wife briefly.
On April 30, the boy developed bloody diarrhea and was diagnosed with hemolytic-uremic syndrome.
"They (the children) weren't ever at the same place at the same time," said Virginia Dao, mother of Zachary Dao, 6, a classmate of the boy in Children's Hospital.
Three of the children are in the morning kindergarten class at Ronald Reagan Elementary School. Two of those students and a preschooler at St. Philip the Apostle are in the same play group, Virginia Dao said.
Zachary was admitted to Memorial with bloody diarrhea but was discharged and is now "back to 110 percent," she said.
"I'd like to know how these kids are getting sick," Virginia Dao said. "It's scary."
Public health's role
County Public Health had to wait until Monday to get lab results.
"As long as we know things are moving" and the department isn't seeing more cases, Public Health will wait to get the diagnoses, Jinadu said.
"We don't even know if it's the parties. We don't know if it's the food," Jinadu said. "We have to be extremely careful."
Now that the test results came back inconclusive, the department will conduct more in-depth testing and do more interviews with the families, Jinadu said.
The Kern County Environmental Health Department, which could investigate the restaurants where the parties were held, is "in a holding pattern," waiting for the Public Health Department to take action, said Director Matt Constantine.
"The concern that we have is the severity of the symptoms and the age of the patients," Constantine said. "That is unusual."
Kern Medical Center and Mercy Hospitals haven't had an influx of foodborne illness reports, hospital officials said. Memorial has had one other case due to a child eating contaminated strawberries, said Ken Keller, Memorial's vice president for physician and business development.
San Joaquin Community Hospital has seen three people diagnosed with salmonella but it's unclear if those cases are related to the other cases, said Cindy Pollard, San Joaquin spokeswoman.
At the schools
Ronald Reagan Elementary School sent letters home last week urging hand washing and medical attention if their children develop nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, fever and fatigue. But the letters only went to some parents.
Parents of the 150 preschoolers at St. Philip the Apostle preschool are praying for the sick children, said Karen Cerri, the preschool director of St. Philip the Apostle.
Food isn't served at the St. Philip the Apostle preschool, said Cerri, who added classrooms are sterilized every day.
Classrooms are thoroughly cleaned each day at Ronald Reagan Elementary, said John Birkhauser, the school's principal.