Infection from goat’s cheese leaves woman in wheelchair

A BRITISH holidaymaker says she was left in a wheelchair by a bacterial infection she picked up from eating unpasteurised cheese in Greece.

Sam Philpott, 22, says the “significant amount” of cheese she consumed from unvaccinated goats while in Kos is responsible for her condition.

In 2013, weeks after travelling to the Greek island with her parents Ian, 52, and Tracey, 51, Miss Philpott fell ill. She suffered debilitating migraines, constant vomiting and nausea, fevers and shakes, crippling weakness, exhaustion, fatigue and “incapacitating pain”.

Her condition has deteriorated over three years and Miss Philpott, of Walsall, West Midlands, is now bedbound. The former nursery assistant also suffers from extreme flu-like symptoms, memory loss and speech loss.

She is now being treated in Florida for fibromyalgia, Brucellosis and Lyme disease after her immune system shut down. Brucellosis is a bacterial infection originating from animals, and although it is effectively wiped out in the UK, it can develop if products from an infected animal are unpasteurised.

“Who knew that unpasteurised cheese, which is delicious and has brought me much momentary happiness, could cause the mind-numbing and wanting-to-end-my-life type of pain that I have been suffering,” Miss Philpott said. A Food Standards Agency spokesman said Brucellosis is “just one risk” posed by unpasteurised milk, advising that “those vulnerable to infection should not drink raw milk at all”.