South Africa reports deadly disease outbreak, 61 dead
SOUTH African media have reported an outbreak of a deadly disease Listeriosis that has claimed 61 lives and is caused by contaminated food including fruits and vegetables.
And Zambia Medical Association (ZMA) secretary general Francis Mupeta has warned travellers to take precautions against raw foods when in South Africa, and called on the Zambian Government to actively look into the possibility of active transmission of listeria in the country considering the proximity with that country.
According to a South African newspaper, The Citizen publication of January 10 2018, the department of health was already on red alert to secure the source and contain the contamination that has so far resulted in 61 deaths said to have been food poisoning.
The investigations into the outbreak have revealed that this could be the worst recorded listeriosis outbreak in global history, which mostly affected neonatal babies from pregnant victims.
Most common symptoms were flu like such as fatigue and muscle ache, but that in pregnant women, it can lead to stillbirth, premature deliveries or lifethreatening infections for newborn such as meningitis.
And Dr Mupeta said listeria presented similar symptoms to cholera and could be missed in the hype of fighting the diarrhea epidemic which has affected Lusaka and other parts of the country. “We know for sure that in South Africa there has been an outbreak of listeria causing a lot of listeriosis, and the question we have now is that is it possible due to the proximity of Zambia to that country, and looking at the amount of trade especially in fresh foods and vegetables, that Zambia could also have listeria?
“Yes it is very much possible, but are we actively looking for listeria? That is the question we need to pose to the authority, because as it is for now a lot of people have been found with diarrhea disease and yes some have been found with cholera and while others have been found with salmonella which causes typhoid but we have not had a direct report of anybody found with listeria,” he said.
He said medical laboratories in Zambia do not have capacity to test for listeria other than the referral facilities at University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and the UNZA veterinary laboratory.