Sickness at playgroup

[LoveSchoolHolidays]

I attended a regular weekly playgroup last week and in the following days 23 children have fallen ill with d&v. These are only the children that I know who have fallen ill, there were other children there but I don’t know if any of them have been ill.
I understand that illness occurs and is common at playgroups, but I am shocked that so many kids got so sick so quickly. Very worrying in my opinion.

My question is, should this be reported to anyone such as Public Health?

www.gov.uk/guidance/notifiable-diseases-and-causative-organisms-how-to-report#list-of-notifiable-diseases

It has to be a reportable disease. Not just D&V

unfortunately some insist on bringing children out to play or nursery with excuses like they ate something, they ran around after eating, got upset, teething etc.
its a nightmare.

God yes, that should be looked into. It sounds far more dodgy than someone bringing in an infectious child. Do they provide snacks?

unless a stool sample has been done saying food poisoning its not notifiable. one or two with the winter vomiting sickness can go right through the group as children mouth toys. the group may need to close for a deep clean has anyone told them?

Winter vomiting sickness can spread like wildfire among toddlers if one or two are sick and then cough, sneeze and lick the toys and touch each other etc - especially in the winter, indoors where the bacteria get nicely heated so multiply more quickly.

Yes and I would recommend that there is a deep clean of the toys, floors, furniture and mats etc before it reopens

'Yes and I would recommend that there is a deep clean of the toys, floors, furniture and mats etc'

Agree with that, it could be a bug. My ward got norovirus a few weeks ago, 11 staff got it and at least 15 patients. That was with the use of side rooms & infection control measures. Everything got a deep clean and we threw away everything that couldn't be cleaned. I'd hope places like play gyms/nurseries would follow similar methods after that kind of outbreak when they have potentially vulnerable customers.

it does sound like this is a toddler group by the phrase "I attend" if so these groups are not for profit and are run by volunteers often mums and grans....I would ask if they need help with a toy wash......funny enough the group I run has few attendees on toy wash days.

An update:

Yes the playgroup is run by volunteers, but this week everyone who regularly attends pitched in and a thorough deep clean was done. Also, our local childminder group gave all our equipment the once over too. Better safe than sorry!

Thanks for the advice

Great to hear the community got together to help.