Cockroaches present at kitchen tied to daycare E. coli outbreak

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Health inspectors identified three critical violations — including “significant evidence” of a cockroach infestation and food-handling issues — at a kitchen thought to be the origin of a large-scale E. coli outbreak at multiple Calgary child-care facilities, provincial representatives said Tuesday.

Alberta health officials said 264 lab-confirmed cases have been connected to the outbreak, an increase of 33 since Monday. The outbreak, declared Sept. 4 after dozens of children began presenting symptoms, has caused several children to be hospitalized, six of whom are on dialysis at the Alberta Children’s Hospital after developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

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Currently, 25 are in hospital and 22 have been diagnosed with HUS, a serious complication that affects kidney and blood clotting functions, and is more common among this specific strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. 

“I want to be absolutely clear that this has been an extraordinary outbreak, both in terms of the numbers and the severity,” Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Mark Joffe, said at a news conference Tuesday morning. “It is certainly the largest E. coli outbreak in Alberta that I’m aware of, and it’s particularly serious given that it has largely impacted young children, who are at most risk of severe outcomes.”

Report finds kitchen transported cold food for more than 90 minutes without proper temperature control

An environmental inspection report of the kitchen shared by the 11 affected daycares — all shuttered in the wake of the outbreak, though six have been allowed to reopen — notes critical violations, including a pest infestation, food-handling errors and sanitation issues, as well as two non-critical violations.

“Two live adult cockroaches were observed on the sides of stainless steel equipment around the dishwashing area. The tin cat traps by the two separate two-compartment sinks had at least 20 cockroaches on the sticky pads each,” reads the report on the health inspection of KidsU Centennial – Fueling Minds Inc., dated the day after the outbreak was declared.

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Additionally, the kitchen was transporting cold foods for more than 90 minutes without proper temperature control and its sanitizing liquid was improperly mixed, resulting in a zero per cent concentration in the cleaning product used for utensils and equipment.

The facility had been inspected five times this year, most recently before the outbreak in April. Critical violations were noted at the time, as they had been in multiple other recent inspections, though Joffe said the issues — again surrounding sanitization — were quickly corrected.

Joffe said the issues outlined in the latest report are a “flag” but said they’re only one piece of the comprehensive investigation Alberta Health Services officials are conducting.

“It certainly highlights that there were some critical issues on the day of the inspection. But it’s only part of the big picture,” he said. “I would not directly link it to the ongoing outbreak that we are investigating, although certainly it is part of the information that we will consider.”

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Results from inspection report ‘upsetting,’ parent says

Some parents are infuriated by the findings of the health inspection. Katie McLean, whose almost two-year-old daughter attends Fueling Brains Academy’s McKnight campus — one of six of the company’s facilities that AHS shuttered due to the outbreak — said she didn’t expect perfection, but the lack of temperature controls during delivery was a surprising and distressing find.

“Anybody who’s worked in the kitchen knows that inspections happen and sometimes weird things are found like cockroaches. That’s upsetting to see but, really, what’s way more upsetting for me is seeing that their transportation didn’t have proper cooling,” she said. “That is really crazy to me to see that their delivery practices were not up to standard.”

McLean’s daughter was admitted to hospital last Wednesday. After days of ups and downs and some tests pointing to potential kidney issues, the girl stabilized and was discharged on Sunday. While McLean is thankful her daughter is home and feeling better — though her parents continue to monitor for symptoms — her heart goes out to the other parents and children still at the hospital.

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“When you’re in the hospital, every time you get positive news, you’re just thinking about what parent might be in the room next to you that’s not getting the same news,” she said. “It’s really hard, being in the hospital and just being on that roller-coaster of not knowing what’s gonna happen with the next test . . . then also just as things improve for you, knowing that you’re one of 200 families that are impacted.”

McLean said she doesn’t know what’s next for her family as far as child-care goes. She and her husband likely won’t be sending their daughter back to Fueling Brains Academy, saying that communication has been an issue since the outbreak started.

“Even if we did feel safe sending our daughter back there — which we don’t necessarily feel — there’s still that question of is this even a business that we want to support with our money?” she said.

AHS still attempting to identify outbreak’s origin

As soon as the outbreak was identified, AHS ordered the kitchen closed, a move Joffe says was integral to limiting additional spread of the infection.

“This decisive, quick and prudent action has almost certainly prevented even more people from becoming ill,” he said.

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Still, Joffe said this outbreak alone is roughly equivalent to the number of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli cases Alberta sees in a full year on average, which is typically between 200 and 300.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said officials are working to ensure such an outbreak doesn’t occur again.

“We have to make sure that we actually determine what the problem was and then move forward to correct it,” she said.

AHS officials have noted the central kitchen is almost certainly the source of the outbreak, though they have not identified the specific cause. Eleven food samples from the kitchen and eight from daycare sites are being tested at AHS labs.

The kitchen will only reopen when AHS deems it safe to do so. Five Fueling Brains Academy sites remain under closure orders, including the Braeside, West 85th, New Brighton, Centennial and McKnight locations.

Opposition NDP criticize officials for taking ‘full week to show any form of public accountability’

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley criticized the number of months AHS left between inspections at the kitchen. She noted that all of the kitchen’s inspections dating back to last year found issues, but inspectors did not pay them a visit between April and September this year.

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“When we do discover the source of that outbreak, we need to move immediately to a full and public inquiry into how this food-handling site was left uninspected for months,” she said. “The Albertans in pain and suffering in hospital deserve better leadership.”

Tuesday was the first time since the outbreak was declared last week that officials spoke publicly on the matter, with previous updates being limited to news releases from AHS. NDP health critic David Shepherd blasted the UCP government for taking a “full week to show any form of public accountability on this.” 

“This is a serious issue that requires serious leadership from the government. Instead, what we got today was a series of non-answers and responses asking the public for patience. That is unacceptable,” Shepherd said in a written statement.

Questioned about the lack of public appearances by himself and the health minister on the outbreak, Joffe said there was no immediate need to address the public.

“At this point, we felt that it was prudent and appropriate for us to appear here and to speak to Albertans and to answer your questions,” he said. “But we didn’t feel that there was urgency to do that up until this point.”

He and LaGrange pointed to the daily updates from AHS and the need for health officials to focus on the patients and the investigation.

“We wanted to make sure when we came out, we had some information to share. And so we now seem to have more information that is worth sharing,” said LaGrange. “But, honestly, this has been, from the very beginning, just heartbreaking.”

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