A contaminated wading pool at a suburban Atlanta water park was blamed Tuesday for an outbreak of E. coli infection that has hospitalized at least eight young children in three states.
“It appears it was transmitted through contaminated water,” Georgia Public Health Director Kathleen Toomey told a news conference. “A child may have been infected and had an accident in the pool.”
Toomey said the outbreak was traced to a recreation park in Marietta, Ga., 15 miles north of Atlanta. Four of the hospitalized children suffered kidney failure, and two remained in critical condition Tuesday.
Toomey said five children hospitalized in Georgia were at the park on June 11 or 12, as were two children from Tennessee and one from South Carolina also diagnosed with E. coli infection. A sixth Georgia case appeared unrelated.
She said all of the E. coli cases tied to the park were among children 6 years old or younger.
E. coli bacteria are killed by chlorine, and Toomey said experts believed the pool may not have received adequate chlorine treatment.
