Departmental plan in place as schools prepare to reopen

THE provincial Department of Health has a plan in place to combat the spread of listeriosis/listeria when schools open on Wednesday. So far, 18 people have died and the department says 92 cases have been reported in the province.

The department’s director of communications, Marika Champion, told Weekend Argus the cases that had been followed up all had underlying conditions.

According to the department’s website, listeriosis is food poisoning caused by eating foods contaminated with listeria monocytogenes bacteria.

In pregnant women, the infection could result in miscarriage, premature delivery, serious infection of the newborn or even stillbirth.

The department said listeriosis affected mainly pregnant women, newborns, the elderly and adults with impaired immune systems.

Healthy adults and children were sometimes infected, but rarely became seriously ill. Babies could be born with listeria if their mothers ate contaminated food during pregnancy, the department said.

The bacteria were found in soil and water and the disease could be spread via vegetables that had been contaminated from the soil or from manure used as fertiliser.

Animals could carry the bacteria and could contaminate meats and dairy products. Processed foods such as soft cheeses and cold cuts could be contaminated after processing, and unpasteurised milk or foods made from unpasteurised milk were also problematic.

The department said symptoms include fever, muscle aches, and sometimes nausea or diarrhoea.

If infection spreads to the nervous system, symptoms such as a headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, or convulsions could occur.

But infected pregnant women may experience only a mild, flu-like illness.

Listeriosis was diagnosed based on a medical history and physical examination.

“Your doctor will ask you questions about your symptoms, foods you have recently eaten, and your work and home environments.” A blood test or spinal fluid test may be done to confirm the diagnosis.

The department said diagnosis of listeriosis could only be confirmed by laboratory testing, and not clinically.

The department was concentrating its efforts on health facilities (private and public).

“We work in tandem with environmental health practitioners in the community who do home visits in designated areas of patients with listeriosis.

“Listeriosis was made a notifiable condition, which obliges health practitioners to notify National Health if there is a lab-confirmed case of listeria, to enable national monitoring and tracking of the disease,” said Champion.

He added that there was collaboration with the National Health Laboratory Services in Johannesburg for the testing of food samples related to the listeriosis outbreak.

“This includes samples collected from patient homes, as well as samples collected from retail outlets or fast food outlets.

“Food industry stakeholders have been engaged and requested to submit positive food and food processing samples to National Health Laboratories and National Institute for Communicable Diseases,” said Champion.

There is no vaccine or pre- exposure prophylaxis for preventing infection. The main preventive measure is to always ensure that good basic hygiene is followed. This includes:

Using only pasteurised dairy products; thoroughly cooking raw foods from animal sources, such as beef, pork or poultry.

Washing your hands before preparing food, before eating and after going to the toilet.

Washing and decontamination of kitchen surfaces and utensils regularly, particularly after preparing raw meat, poultry and eggs.

Washing raw vegetables and fruit before eating.

Provincial Education spokesperson Paddy Attwell said while there was no special strategy in place for schools specifically, the protocols prescribed by the Health Department would be followed.