The parents of dozens of nursery school children in Belfast were today anxiously awaiting the results of tests on their children for the dangerous E.coli stomach bug.
An E.coli alert among nursery school pupils in the city was extended last night after the detection of two further probable cases.
One child has already been under treatment in a Belfast hospital since last week after being diagnosed with an illness dangerous for the very young.
The child, reported to be in a stable condition, is a pupil at the Ravenscroft Nursery School in East Belfast where screening of all other pupils and staff today led to the detection of the two further probable cases of E. coli 0157.
Results on several more of the children are still awaited.
However the Eastern Health and Social Services Board extended the testing programme after discovering the two latest children thought to have contracted the bug had been involved in an exchange visit last week with a second nursery school in the west of the city.
As a result, around 60 staff and pupils at the second school — the Cathedral Nursery School in the Lower Falls area — are now being offered screening for the infection which causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting.
The health board said it had extended the screening based on the expert national advice of the Health Protection Agency because of the special risk factors associated with E.coli 0157 and children of pre-school age.
PA