According to various press reports, State health official say three children were hospitalized in western Kentucky in an unusually large outbreak of a bacterial infection that causes watery diarrhea and spreads easily. Janie Cambron, regional epidemiologist for the Green River District Health Department, said Wednesday the children have since been released after contracting shigella, a bacterial infection spread through just a tiny amount of infected fecal matter.
Cambron says there were 80 reported cases of the disease as of Friday in Daviess County, and three in adjacent Ohio County. Dr. William Hacker, commissioner of the state public health department, says shigella is common and usually affects children. He says some years in Kentucky, as few as 50 or many as 500 cases are seen sporadically.