Food poisoning in Aisne: 17 infected children now reported, supermarket butcher's section closed as a precaution

Three new cases of severe food poisoning in children were recorded in the Aisne department during the night of Saturday 21 to Sunday 22 June, the prefecture announced, adding that a new butcher's section in a supermarket had been closed as a precaution.

This brings to 17 the number of infected children who have suffered severe digestive problems, with mucous and bloody diarrhea, the majority of whom live in the Saint-Quentin area, according to the prefecture.

None of the three new cases detected developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which has so far affected eight children, including a 12-year-old girl who died on Monday .

Of these 17 young patients, four were able to leave the hospital and return home. However, all are undergoing "continuous medical monitoring," the prefecture said.

Samples are being taken from the meat sections of two supermarkets in the Saint-Quentin area, one more than the prefecture's previous update on Saturday evening.

The prefecture had already announced on Friday the precautionary closure of four butcher shops in Saint-Quentin, where samples were also taken. Initial test results should be available early next week.

The decision to suspend these butcher shops "was taken on the basis of investigations conducted into the consumption of each of the poisoned people," explained the prefecture, stressing that "at this stage, the most likely cause of the contamination is the consumption of meat."

"Since the origin of the meat is not yet known, it is necessary to take into consideration all the places where one or more infected people consumed it," the prefecture explained.

However, these butcher shops do not have a common supplier, a spokesperson for the Aisne prefecture told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday, which risks complicating the search for the origin of the contamination.

A rare infectious disease, "most often foodborne," HUS occurs in most cases as a complication of poisoning by a bacterium from the Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) family. It affects 100 to 165 children in France each year, according to Public Health France.