It is estimated that 1,600 people develop listeriosis every year, and about 260 of them die.
The CDC keeps us updated on listeriosis outbreaks on a regular basis, and the most recent is the Florida listeriosis outbreak linked to ‘Big Olaf Creamery’ ice cream.
Why did I decide to write about this disease?
Listeriosis is a relatively rare disease with between 0.1 and 10 cases per 1 million people annually. While there are few cases, this infection poses a significant public health problem due to its high mortality. This disease affects the central nervous system and reproductive organs.
What is listeriosis?
Listeriosis is a foodborne bacterial disease that can lead to devastating consequences in pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. Healthy people rarely experience this infection, but it can be fatal for immunocompromised people, such as:
- people over 60 years of age;
- HIV/AIDS patients;
- people suffering from oncological or autoimmune diseases, blood diseases, as well as other diseases that require long-term use for the treatment of hormonal drugs, antibiotics and cytostatics;
- people taking drugs after organ transplants;
- patients with acute and chronic infectious diseases: tuberculosis, diabetes mellitus, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, kidney disease etc;
- people who take large doses of prednisone or certain rheumatoid arthritis drugs.
Listeriosis affects humans and animals (rodents, cats and dogs, cows, sheep). Listeria can be contracted through eating meat, dairy products, soft cheeses, fast food, seafood, vegetables, and fruits.
Listeriosis as an occupational disease can occur among veterinarians, livestock breeders, milkmaids, workers in meat processing plants, and skin processing factories, hunters, fishermen, midwives and other professions that require contact with infected animals or people.
A feature of this bacterium is the ability to survive and develop in chilled and even frozen foods.
That is, storing food in the refrigerator does not kill the dangerous pathogen. Listeria is often referred to as the "refrigerator germ" because it is able to survive in these conditions. Listeria has another insidious property: the ability to multiply in pickles. If most microbes die under these conditions, then Listeria can withstand salt concentrations of up to 6-20%.
Listeria die at the boiling point, and under the influence of sunlight, the causative agent of the disease will live no more than 15 days.
Symptoms of listeriosis may appear several days after eating contaminated food. However, for some, a month or even more passes before the first signs of the disease appear.
If you develop this infection, you may experience the following 4 main symptoms:
- high temperature;
- muscle pain;
- nausea;
- diarrhea.
If Listeria spreads to the nervous system, a person may experience additional symptoms, including:
- headache;
- neck muscle stiffness;
- confusion;
- loss of balance;
- seizures.
If four main symptoms appear, contact your doctor immediately. If additional symptoms appear that affect the nervous system, it is necessary to call an ambulance. These symptoms may indicate the development of one of the life-threatening complications – bacterial meningitis.
In order to prevent infection with listeriosis, you must adhere to some simple recommendations:
- Rinse fruit and vegetables thoroughly under warm water before use.
- It is necessary to monitor the cleanliness of the kitchen surface. Also cutting boards for meat and fruit should be separate.
- As you already know, Listeria can survive in the refrigerator. For this reason, it is necessary to monitor the temperature in the freezer; it should not be higher than 0 degrees.
- It is recommended to regularly clean the refrigerator from food debris and liquids spilled from fish or poultry.
- Meat and fish must be well cooked. Try removing semi-finished products from the menu.
- Opened canned food should be stored no more than 3 days.
- Cheeses of soft varieties are recommended to be used with caution.
At the first suspicion of infection, it is necessary to pass an analysis for listeriosis. Timely treatment helps prevent or mitigate the development of complications.
It should be remembered that food, properly processed and cooked, is not dangerous to health!