What we know about the poisoning of two children with E. coli bacteria after eating cheese

Two children aged 18 months and 7 years were hospitalized after serious complications. They had consumed morbier, a cheese of which several references were the subject of a health recall in December.

Two children were hospitalized in December for serious poisoning with E. coli bacteria, their parents told France 2 on Friday February 9, confirming the revelations of several media outlets. They are a 7-year-old girl and an 18-month-old baby, with no family ties but from the Rhône. Both had recently consumed morbier, a cheese of which several references were the subject of recalls due to the potential presence of E. coli, the bacteria which was already involved in the case of poisoning linked to pizzas at the Buitoni factory in Caudry (North). The two families filed a complaint against X. Franceinfo takes stock of what we know about these two cases.

7-year-old girl at risk of losing her kidneys

Elise, 7 years old, has been hospitalized since the end of December. “We took her to the on-call medical center on the evening of the 24th”while she suffered from stomach aches, after having consumed morbier the day before, her father told BFMTV. “They confirmed the diagnosis of gastro, because they couldn’t see anything else with what they had available and given the symptoms she had.” The presence of E. coli bacteria, which can cause poisoning, was detected several days later.

Since then, the little girl from Saint-Etienne-des-Oullières (Rhône) has been hospitalized in Bron, near Lyon. “She still has not recovered the functions of her kidneys. The chances are more and more slim that she will recover them”his father worries. “She can no longer play sports, she can no longer go swimming…”he confides to France 2. “We’re connected at night, so we won’t be able to go on vacation or have weekends.

An 18-month-old baby placed in a coma

A similar contamination took place in another family in the Rhône in December. Clara, an 18-month-old child, was also hospitalized after suffering E. coli poisoning, her parents told France 2 on Friday, as reported by BFMTV.

She also ate morbier on December 19, bought this time in Meyzieu, in the Lyon suburbs, reports BFMTV. She underwent dialysis for three weeks and was placed in an artificial coma for 25 days, details the channel, which specifies that the little girl is now awake, but suffers from kidney pain and has a paralyzed left hand. “She is slowly recovering, but we are unable to tell us what the neurological consequences will be”details his mother to France 2. “She struggles to walk, we don’t know if she will have full mobility”adds his father, who is worried about “his cerebral faculties”and so “his future”.

Morbiers recalled by health authorities

The two hospitalizations occurred after the ingestion of morbier, purchased in E.Leclerc supermarkets. A variety of cheese of which several references have been the subject of recalls due to a risk of the presence of E. coli bacteria in December and January. These recalls are still present on the official website which brings together alerts on dangerous products. Some, however, date back to the consumption of the cheeses by the two children of the Rhône. “All references to the products concerned have been removed from our shelves in all stores”responds to France 2 the E.Leclerc group, Saturday.

“It is difficult to understand how a product recall can be organized in such an ineffective way”, denounces lawyer Nathalie Goutaland, who represents the parents of the two poisoned children. They have filed a complaint against X, they announce to France 2.

The health authorities announced that they had requested these cheese recalls in mid-December, after six cases of contamination of children under 3 years old in a daycare in Toulouse, all of whom have since been released from hospital. A link had been established with raw milk cheeses produced by the Route des terroirs company in a factory in the Jura. Two families filed a complaint, reported France Bleu Occitanie.

“We carried out an analysis of the causes, and it emerged that there was a deviation from the control plan for the morbial sector. (…) As a precautionary principle, we blocked all of the manufacturing and refining which are present there now”explained a company manager to France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.