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Nursery 'not to blame' for infection

Independent investigators have said they cannot pinpoint the source of an outbreak of E.coli 0157 in a Scottish nursery last year.

Careshare Lauder Nursery in Dumfermline was cleared of any negligenceregarding the outbreak, which left five nursery children seriously illin May 2006. The board of NHS Fife received an Incident Control Team(ICT) report and an independent review last week.

Dr Mike Roworth, author of the report and chairman of the ICT team,said, 'Despite detailed and exhaustive investigation, we concluded thatit was not possible to say what the source of outbreak was, but the mostlikely scenario was a single introduction of the bacterium into theCareshare Lauder Nursery, followed by person-to-person spread.'

The report noted, 'Nurseries would need to have a standard of infectioncontrol approaching that in a surgical operating theatre in order toprevent the spread of E.coli 0157 infection. This is probablyunattainable, given the need for nurseries to provide social interactionand stimulation for children.'

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