Food poisoning in Aisne: two new cases recorded two weeks after the closure of butcher shops

A wave of poisonings continues in the Aisne department. Two new cases of E.coli poisoning , which resulted in the death of a young girl in mid-June, have been reported, the prefecture reported on Saturday, July 5. They are two children from the same family, and one of them is hospitalized, according to the press release .

"According to initial investigations, this appears to be a case of contamination within the same family, linked to the consumption of meat in one of the five butcher shops that have been closed," the prefecture said.

So far, 30 cases of food poisoning have been reported, including a 73-year-old person and 29 children. One child, Elise, died on June 16 at the age of 11 .

The analyses carried out confirmed this Wednesday the link between the poisonings and several of the suspected butcher shops . The first results of the genomic sequencing of the bacteria "provide irrefutable proof of a correspondence between the bacteria found in several of the butcher shops or in the meat they sold and the bacteria found in several patients," the prefecture had then indicated in a press release.

The affected butcher shops were administratively closed between June 19 and 22. Only one was able to reopen. "New cases can be recorded, even after the butcher shops have closed," explained the Aisne prefecture after the discovery of these new cases. This is primarily because "diagnosis can occur several days after the onset of symptoms," but also because contamination can occur between people.

"This type of contamination, known as 'secondary', is explained by the transmission by hands of bacteria present in the stools of sick people. This is the reason why it most often occurs within the same home and in the presence of young children for whom it is more difficult to strictly apply hygiene rules," the prefecture emphasizes.

State services are thus reminding people of the importance of hygiene rules within homes, in particular the attention that must be paid to washing hands "before preparing meals or after going to the toilet."

The prefecture is calling for people to discard any frozen products purchased since June 1st from one of the five butcher shops listed in the press release , and to clean any refrigerators where these products were stored.

"If you or your children have consumed food from these establishments, monitor your health," it says. "Call 15 immediately if you experience mucous and bloody diarrhea."

The Saint-Quentin public prosecutor's office, which had opened a preliminary investigation into the charges of involuntary manslaughter, involuntary injury, endangerment and deception aggravated by endangering human health, relinquished jurisdiction on June 25 in favor of the public health division of the Paris public prosecutor's office.