DEL MAR, Calif. — San Diego County health officials announced late Friday night that a 2-year-old child has died and three other children between 2 and 13 years old have become ill after having contact with animals at the San Diego County Fair.

The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency reported four confirmed pediatric cases of Shig-toxin-producing E. coli — known as STEC —linked to contact with the animals.

Officials from the HHSA's Epidemiology Program and County Department of Environmental Health are investigating the cluster of four infections, officials said. The four children who fell ill visited the fair between June 8 and June 15, and began showing symptoms between June 10 and June 16.

“Three of the four cases were not hospitalized,” county authorities said in a statement. “However, one of the four cases, a 2-year-old boy, was hospitalized and unfortunately died on June 24, from a complication of this disease.”

Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county's public health officer, said in a statement that “our sympathies go out to the family of the child that died from this illness.”

At a news conference late Friday night, Del Mar Fairgrounds CEO Tim Fennell said fair officials were “heartbroken” and “devastated” by the boy's death, which he said they only learned of Friday night.

County health officials notified fair officials Friday morning of the E. coli outbreak when they arrived to investigate, Fennell said, adding that all animal areas were shut down as soon as county health officials directed the fair to do so.

Fennell said that to his knowledge, this was the first outbreak of E. coli at the San Diego County Fair, previously known as the Del Mar Fair.

“The fair will continue; we hope folks will come out and visit the fair,” Fennell said. “Again, we are devastated ... but we're moving forward; we're taking every precaution and the fair will continue through the Fourth of July.”

Wooten said that while most people recover from the illness without complications, “(5) to 10 percent of people diagnosed with STEC develop the life-threatening kidney infection.”