Shigellosis is another disease kids risk contracting in day care centers and passing on to their families.
In 1991 there was an outbreak of Shigella sonnei infection in Lexington-Fayette County, Kentucky, that involved 14 licensed day care centers, making a lot of people sick but, every cloud has a silver lining, giving researchers a chance to test some epidemiological hypotheses. They discovered some useful information.
Day care centers that had outbreaks were more likely to have a food handler who also changed diapers and provided transportation for children from their homes to the center. These centers also had a higher toddler-to-toilet ratio, so there were more kids using the same bathroom.
In most families with shigellosis, the first person with diarrhea was a child younger than six. And, perhaps most interesting, the community-wide promotion of hand washing was identified as the most likely factor in getting the outbreak under control.
Related Posts
-
How does E. coli O157:H7 spread in Day Care Centers and How is infection prevented?
E. coli O157:H7 is a threat with young children not only because it can make them quite ill, but also because they can shed it in their feces for up to two weeks…
-
What types of infectious diseases can children catch at a Day Care Center?
Rotavirus is a good example of the kind of disease that is easily transmitted in child care settings. There are others as well, most of them considerably less serious in their effects than…
-
How do Vaccines help prevent the spread of Infectious Diseases?
Viruses are parasitic. They can only live and reproduce inside the cells of other animals or plants, in scientific terms, they are called obligate survive in one environment (if a germ can survive…
-
How do pet reptiles spread diseases and How are infections prevented?
Some people never learn. In October 1996, a three-week-old boy was brought into a hospital emergency room in Arizona suffering from a fever of 103.6, plus vomiting and bloody diarrhea that had been…
-
What types of diseases can tropical fish spread and How can infection be prevented?
Well, okay, so I can get plenty of diseases from those pets, but at least I can't catch anything from my tropical fish, right? Not so fast. It would be absurd to tell…
-
What types of Diseases, Germs, and Bacteria do Cockroaches Carry and Spread?
There are dozens of different species of cockroach, and the one probably most familiar in restaurants is the German cockroach. Many people believe that cockroach infestation is one of the burdens of living…
