Knoxville daycare closed in response to e. coli illnesses
After three children became ill with e. coli at a Knoxville daycare, the facility has been closed by the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS). Kids Place Inc. Millertown Child Care Center was ordered to close all of its locations. Initially, it only closed its Baby House, for children under 2 ½, after a child came to the daycare sick with symptoms of e. coli contamination. However, TDHS has issued a safety plan requiring the daycare to close all of its facilities, including a daycare, after school care, and summer camps.
More than ten children have become ill from e. coli contamination that may have originated in their consumption of raw milk or from contact with animals. There are animals living in enclosed areas around the daycare facility. Health officials investigating the illnesses may have also identified French Broad Farm in Knoxville, Tennessee, as the source of potentially contaminated, non-pasteurized raw milk consumed by the affected children.
According to E. coli lawyer Ron Simon “Raw milk is illegal in most states – at least for general sale – because it is so often linked to communicable pathogens. I recommend parents ONLY serve pasteurized milk products tot their children.”
The Knox County Health Department is taking environmental samples around the daycare facility and will continue to determine the exact source of the e. coli.
Kids Place Inc. Millertown Child Care Center will not be allowed to reopen until the Knox County Health Department provides written documentation that the center is clear and free of e. coli or any other pathogen that may be present.
Five children are being treated at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital for illnesses related to e. coli contamination. Four of the children are in serious condition and one is in fair condition. Ten of the children who have become ill in the Knoxville area are under the age of four.
For more information about the e. coli outbreak among young children in Knoxville, please contact the food poisoning lawyers at 1-888-335-4901 to speak to an E. coli lawyer.
