Child in Seattle suburb under boil water order sickened by E. coli
By Victoria Cavaliere SEATTLE (Reuters) - A child living in a wealthy Seattle suburb under orders to boil its tap water after tests showed the presence of E. coli has become infected with the bacteria, authorities said on Monday. The child, who has not been hospitalized, was the first reported illness following positive tests for the bacteria in tap water on Mercer Island, on Lake Washington, health officials said. "We don't know whether the infection in this child was caused by the water on Mercer Island," said Dr. Meagan Kay, medical epidemiologist for Public Health – Seattle & King County. "We may never be able to definitively link this case to a particular source," she said in a statement. E. coli, a fecal coliform bacteria that can indicate the presence of sewage or animal waste in the water supply, has shown up twice in less than a week in Mercer Island's tap water, health officials said. The discovery forced authorities to issue boil water alerts for the city's 24,000 residents and to shut down restaurants and cafes as the source of the contamination was investigated, the officials said. The first water sample tested positive on Sept. 26, prompting a day of school closures, but the alert was lifted after tests indicated the water was safe. On Oct. 2, E. coli was again detected in the water supply. The boil water alert was still in effect on Monday but schools were open. Students were being given bottled water. Many strains of E. coli are harmless, though others, such as the O157 strain that was believed to have sickened the Mercer Island child, can cause severe illness, such as kidney failure, or even death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In September, a 4-year-old Oregon girl and a 3-year-old girl from Lynden, Washington, died and a 5-year-old Tacoma boy was hospitalized after they were infected with the O157 strain. Seattle health officials said in a statement there are between 20 and 30 cases of O157 infection each year. (Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere in Seattle; Editing by Eric M. Johnson and Jim Loney)
