Government panel probes failures in food safety leading to Calgary's E. Coli outbreak

Parents started showing up at Calgary hospitals with sick children on Sept. 1, the Friday before the Labour Day weekend.

The numbers grew on Saturday.

By Sunday, as more and more children fell ill, the first case of shiga toxin-producing E. coli, or STEC, came back positive.

"It confirmed what our suspicion was," said Dr. Stephen Freedman, an emergency medicine physician at Alberta Children's Hospital who researches STEC infections at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine.

"It was not one or two a day, but 25 to 30 kids a day. By Sunday, 50 kids."

The E. coli outbreak, declared on Sept. 4, led to at least 448 infections — 39 children and one adult were hospitalized for severe illness. Another 32 secondary cases have also been linked.

It became the largest known outbreak in children under five, said Freedman.

Alberta Health Services said 23 children were diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a complication affecting the blood and kidneys, and eight required dialysis.

The eight-week outbreak was traced back to Fueling Minds, a catering company and school lunch delivery service provider that prepared food for its Fueling Brains locations and other daycares in Calgary.

Health officials have said meat loaf and vegan loaf meals served for lunch Aug. 29 most likely contained the E. coli that led to the initial infections.

E. coli is a type of bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhea. Some strains cause more severe illness. Shiga toxin-producing E. coli is different as it produces a toxin that can cause complications.

Sarah MacDonald, whose four-year-old son attends one of the affected locations, said he came home from daycare Aug. 31 with what he thought was exciting news.

"He was really proud that he had pooped at daycare," she recalled. "He was like, 'I had poops and they were funny colours.' And I was like, 'Oh God, great. We're going to have the stomach flu now.'"

"And when he got home, he kind of had a fever. So, we gave him Tylenol, put him to bed and hoped that he wouldn't get a [gastrointestinal] bug. But by 11 p.m., he started with diarrhea. He pooped his pants in his sleep. It was every 20 to 30 minutes for the next, I don't know, 60 hours."