More than 100 people have been linked to the E. coli outbreak that shut down 11 Calgary and area daycares this past weekend.
On Thursday, Alberta Health Services (AHS) said there are now 128 lab-confirmed cases linked to the outbreak, up from 96 the day before.
More kids are moving through hospitals. As of Thursday, there were 25 kids in hospital, 20 at Alberta Children’s Hospital and five in the pediatric unit of the Peter Lougheed Centre, and three kids have been discharged from hospital.
The provincial health authority confirmed nine patients have been confirmed with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), that they are stable and are receiving “appropriate care” in hospital.
HUS is a kidney condition when the filtering properties of those organs is blocked by destroyed red blood cells. That can result in acute kidney injury — the sudden and temporary loss of kidney function — and can result in needing dialysis.
According to pediatric nephrologist Dr. Julian Midgley, the “vast majority” of kids will eventually recover from HUS.
He recognized it can be terrifying for the family.
“Children can be very well and then three or five days later be significantly ill with both, with decreased kidney function, and it could even be a week later,” Midgley told Global News.
“And the children could be very, very unwell in hospital, sometimes even needing intensive care treatment.”
During an unrelated E. coli outbreak in October 2022, Teagan Roberts’ son Rhett had a four-day stay in the pediatric ICU, part of more than a month in hospital.
At one year of age, Rhett went into renal failure and seizures.
“He has a chronic kidney disease and he has brain damage, so we’re dealing with some developmental delays,” Roberts said.
“We continuously have follow ups with the nephrology clinic at Alberta Health Services, and he’s in speech therapy and he has seen physiotherapy as well. So lots of ongoing medical appointments for him, unfortunately.”
This week, Alberta Children’s Hospital set up a dedicated clinic to monitor patients after their initial visit to the emergency department in this latest outbreak, as well as for patients who have been discharged from hospital.
Children in the outbreak are having to do daily bloodwork to monitor for signs that could indicate HUS or other complications.
Sarah MacDonald’s son Lachlan is among the dozens of kids under close monitoring as a result of this week’s outbreak.
“People are waiting six, seven hours in the emergency room every day because the blood tests have to happen every 24 hours,” MacDonald said.
“These are kids under five. They’re supposed to go to bed at 7 p.m. and some of them, their time to go in is 7:30 p.m.”
The daily blood tests are the latest in a parade of challenges.
MacDonald’s son got sick soon after coming home from daycare and had “really intense” diarrhea for more than 48 hours straight.
“Lachlan spent nights on the toilet. He couldn’t even sleep in his bed,” MacDonald said. “He was passing not just blood but flesh in his stool.”
She said her son now suffers from a bowel prolapse.
“It’s not going to be a quick recovery for him.”
Despite regular communications from Fueling Brains Academy and AHS since the outbreak was declared, Sarah said she was disappointed to not be notified of suspected E. coli infections in an early letter.
“I don’t feel like these kids were protected in that communication.”
AHS has set up a web page for the public about the outbreak.
AHS said it was aware of three patients linked to the daycares who are receiving care outside the province.