Problems found at day care before meningitis suspicions

Two days before the first of two children at a downtown Miami childcare center died of suspected meningitis, state inspectors made an ominous finding: The daycare had no place to isolate sick children from healthy ones.

The Department of Children & Families gave the daycare, the YWCA Carol Glassman Donaldson Childcare Center, 30 days to correct the deficiency. But on Dec. 3, a 22-month-old boy died from an illness that was initially thought to be pneumonia. A second child, a 2-year-old boy, died a week later — after also being first diagnosed with pneumonia.

Florida health officials confirmed Wednesday that one of the two children tested positive for pneumococcal meningitis, an infectious disease caused by a common bacteria that spreads through sneezing, coughing and direct contact with the saliva or mucus of infected persons.

The second child also is suspected of having contracted meningitis. But because the child died outside of the country, said Mara Gambineri, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health, state officials have been unable to confirm with laboratory testing whether the second child also had meningitis.

"We’re in the midst of that investigation at this point," said Gambineri, who added that the daycare’s administrators had asked the agency and the Department of Children & Families, which regulates child daycare centers, to inspect the facility and provide feedback.

The YWCA closed the Donaldson center on Tuesday, and state and county regulators said the daycare will not reopen until state health administrators have declared it safe.