Aisne: Three new cases of food poisoning in Saint-Quentin

Following the precautionary closure of several butcher shops in Saint-Quentin, three new cases of child poisoning were recorded on Saturday, the Aisne prefecture announced, bringing the total number of children taken into care since June 12 to 14.

All of these children, the majority of whom live in the Saint-Quentin metropolitan area, suffered from severe digestive problems with mucous-filled, bloody diarrhea, according to the prefecture. Eight of them developed a serious kidney problem, known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), including two among the new cases recorded Saturday.

"Four children were able to leave the hospital and return home," and all affected children "are receiving ongoing medical monitoring," the prefecture added in a statement.

State services, including the prefecture and the Regional Health Agency, "are continuing their investigations to find the origin of the contamination," according to the press release.

On Friday, it announced that samples had been taken from four butcher shops in Saint-Quentin, all of which had been closed as a precaution . The results, at least for the first two butcher shops, should be known at the beginning of next week. However, these four butcher shops do not have a common supplier, according to a spokesperson for the Aisne prefecture interviewed by AFP, which risks complicating the search for the source of the contamination.

A rare infectious disease, "most often foodborne," HUS occurs in most cases as a complication of poisoning by a bacterium from the Escherichia coli (E. coli) family. It affects 100 to 165 children in France each year, according to Public Health France.