District continues cleaning as ninth case confirmed in just under month
MONROE - A second school in the Monroe School District is undergoing extensive cleaning procedures, according to school officials, after one new confirmed case of E. coli bacteria O157 was identified in a student at Northside Elementary School this week.
The new confirmation brings the number of cases of E. coli O157 in Green County to nine cases since Oct. 9, eight of which were found in children and one in an adult.
The case is connected to the household of a confirmed case found in a student at Abraham Lincoln Accelerated Learning Academy in early October, according to Green County Health Department Director RoAnn Warden.
Warden met with state and local health officials and Monroe school district officials Friday to determine a course of action.
This weekend, parents of students in one first-grade class at Northside School are being asked to complete a questionnaire about gastrointestinal illnesses and return the completed survey to the school in an envelope provided by the district office.
"Right now, over the weekend, we are gathering more information. We are also waiting for more lab results, called tests of cures, which identify children who have recovered from the infection and are now testing negative," Warden explained.
Children must have a negative test result before being allowed back into their classrooms.
The Monroe school district has intensified its cleaning and sanitizing of classrooms across the district, according to Superintendent Larry Brown.
Whether students at Northside will be screened for E. coli infection, as was done in Abe Lincoln last month, will be a decision made by health department officials, he added.
State and local health officials discovered the newest case through routine follow-up screenings of households of the 4K and kindergarten students at Abe Lincoln who had tested positive in October. No staff member at Abe Lincoln Elementary school tested positive. All children in 4K and kindergarten were required to be tested by Monday, Oct. 24.
Seven infections among 4K and kindergarten students at Abe Lincoln and one adult family member had been confirmed by Wednesday, Oct. 26.
Warden said the parents of two students declined to have their children tested, and those children are excluded from the classrooms.
School-age siblings of children with a confirmed E. coli O157 infection were also being required to submit a stool specimen before they return to school.
The county had a previous rash of nine confirmed cases between July and September this year. One child died as a result of complications related to the bacterial infection.
MONROE - A second school in the Monroe School District is undergoing extensive cleaning procedures, according to school officials, after one new confirmed case of E. coli bacteria O157 was identified in a student at Northside Elementary School this week.
The new confirmation brings the number of cases of E. coli O157 in Green County to nine cases since Oct. 9, eight of which were found in children and one in an adult.
The case is connected to the household of a confirmed case found in a student at Abraham Lincoln Accelerated Learning Academy in early October, according to Green County Health Department Director RoAnn Warden.
Warden met with state and local health officials and Monroe school district officials Friday to determine a course of action.
This weekend, parents of students in one first-grade class at Northside School are being asked to complete a questionnaire about gastrointestinal illnesses and return the completed survey to the school in an envelope provided by the district office.
"Right now, over the weekend, we are gathering more information. We are also waiting for more lab results, called tests of cures, which identify children who have recovered from the infection and are now testing negative," Warden explained.
Children must have a negative test result before being allowed back into their classrooms.
The Monroe school district has intensified its cleaning and sanitizing of classrooms across the district, according to Superintendent Larry Brown.
Whether students at Northside will be screened for E. coli infection, as was done in Abe Lincoln last month, will be a decision made by health department officials, he added.
State and local health officials discovered the newest case through routine follow-up screenings of households of the 4K and kindergarten students at Abe Lincoln who had tested positive in October. No staff member at Abe Lincoln Elementary school tested positive. All children in 4K and kindergarten were required to be tested by Monday, Oct. 24.
Seven infections among 4K and kindergarten students at Abe Lincoln and one adult family member had been confirmed by Wednesday, Oct. 26.
Warden said the parents of two students declined to have their children tested, and those children are excluded from the classrooms.
School-age siblings of children with a confirmed E. coli O157 infection were also being required to submit a stool specimen before they return to school.
The county had a previous rash of nine confirmed cases between July and September this year. One child died as a result of complications related to the bacterial infection.