Two East Lothian nurseries closed by E. coli outbreak reopen

Two nurseries hit by an E. coli outbreak in East Lothian have reopened their doors to staff and pupils after being closed for several weeks.

Church Street Pear Tree Nursery in Haddington reopened on Monday, followed by Meadowpark Pear Tree Nursery on Wednesday.

The nurseries were two of five that had to close over the bacterial outbreak which began in early August.

Plans to reopen the other three are in place, health officials said.

The three nurseries that remain closed are West Road Pear Street Nursery, Musselburgh Private Nursery in Bridge Street and Musselburgh Private Nursery, Stoneybank.

Symptoms of E. coli include mild loose stools to severe bloody diarrhoea. The most severe symptoms can lead to blood poisoning and kidney failure.

Dr Graham Mackenzie, chairman of the incident management team which was set up to investigate the cluster of cases, said the reopening of the nurseries proved that robust control measures were successful.

Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria are found in the intestines of humans and animals. There are many different types, some are harmless and others can cause a variety of diseases.

The bacterium is found in faeces and can survive in the environment.

E. coli bacteria can cause a range of infections including urinary tract infection, cystitis (infection of the bladder), and intestinal infection.

E. coli infections can be serious and often cause severe diarrhoea, sometimes with blood in it, abdominal cramps and fever.

Dr Mackenzie said enough staff and pupils had provided two negative stool samples 24 hours apart to make it feasible for the Church Street and Meadowpark nurseries to reopen.

"Over the last few weeks, hundreds of exclusion orders have been put in place to safeguard public health and safeguard communities," Dr Mackenzie said.

"This has been challenging for everyone involved.

"We all know how difficult the Covid-19 lockdown and the pandemic has been on family life and that as a result these E. coli exclusions have been difficult for families to accept."

He added that the remaining nurseries would open when it was judged safe to do so.

Church Street Pear Tree Nursery was originally closed on 2 August after a number of children fell ill and went on to test positive for E. coli.

The sister nursery Meadowpark Pear Tree Nursery was then closed on 12 August as a precaution before E. coli cases linked to the premises were confirmed on 18 August.

In total, there have been 50 confirmed cases of in East Lothian.