Listeriosis cases inching towards the 1000 mark

164 people have already died of the food-borne bacterial infection, which has flu-like symptoms

THE NUMBER of listeriosis cases is nearing 1 000, although the source of the killer disease has yet to be found.

The latest statistics from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) indicate that 872 confirmed cases of the food-borne bacterial disease have been reported. Of these, 164 people have already died from the illness, which has flu-like symptoms.

Forty-three percent of the confirmed cases are babies aged less than a month and pregnant women.

The head of the centre for enteric diseases at the NICD, Dr June Thomas, said it had been hard to locate the source of the outbreak as it could be found in a variety of places.

“Because listeria is found in a wide environment, we find it in water and vegetation, and certain animals carry it in their gut, so the possibilities of contamination of food items is very broad. That is why it is difficult to find the source. Listeria can cause an outbreak at numerous points in the food chain; we think of it as a farm-to-fork approach,” Thomas said.

She said food can be contaminated with the listeria bacteria during the packaging, distribution and sometimes at the end point of retailers or even in households.

Thomas said this made it difficult to trace and contain the bacteria.

Last week, the City of Joburg said it had discovered listeria in an eatery.

Thomas said the presence of listeria did not necessarily mean the food was dangerous, especially in uncooked food like meat and chicken.

“There has unfortunately been a lot of misinformation around the testing of listeria. There are certain types of food that you commonly do find listeria on, but they don’t necessarily pose a risk.

“The biggest example of this is raw chicken. Often when you test chicken, you can find listeria there but it doesn’t pose a great health risk because you are going to cook it before you eat it. Nobody eats chicken sushi,” Thomas said.

She said the biggest worry was when listeria was in readyto-eat food like fruits, vegetables and cold meats.

“If it is food that has already been cooked and it has listeria, then it is risky,” Thomas said.

She cautioned people not to panic over the outbreak.

“It is important to remember that otherwise healthy individuals are not at risk of developing severe listeriosis. Listeria targets people in very vulnerable risk groups, including pregnant women, very young babies under a month old, people aged over 65 and anyone with a weak immune system, for instance those with HIV/Aids or cancer,” Thomas said.

She added: “If pregnant women get fever or a bit of diarrhoea, they should see a doctor. It is not because they will get sick, but if listeria gets in the bloodstream, it infects the unborn baby.”

Almost 60% of listeriosis cases have been reported in Gauteng, 13% in the Western Cape and 7% in KwaZulu-Natal.

It is difficult to trace and contain the bacteria