I've been distracted by life events for a while. I saw my sister for the first time in ten years over the festive period and we've also moved to new business premises. Every day feels like an episode in an interminable catch-up series. I did manage to not miss the Zuma resignation though! While on the subject of bacteria, I did miss the scale of the listeriosis outbreak in South Africa, even though it affected both my sister and her husband. We are currently experiencing the worst documented outbreak in global history.
When my sister arrived back in New Zealand, she and her husband both became violently ill. I suspect they were infected somewhere in Johannesburg on their way to the airport. I have many people at my house, and no-one else became ill. After eating food infected with listeria, it can one to three days for symptoms to appear, though it can take even longer, sometimes weeks! Symptoms vary from signs of mild flu, like fever and muscle aches all the way through to death! My sister said she and her husband have never been that sick before. They both had almost a week of diarrhea and vomiting. Fortunately my niece was spared.
On the 13 February Sowetan Live reported figures released by The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed there were 872 confirmed cases of listeriosis since December last year, and 164 deaths!!! Sadly most of the deaths were babies and pregnant women, who are much more at risk from the listeria bacteria. Another sector of the population who are greatly at risk are the immune-compromised, which makes the outbreak in our country even more deadly due to our HIV/AIDS infection rate.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is assisting South Africa in trying to determine the cause of the listeriosis outbreak, and has sent a food safety expert, an epidemiologist with listeriosis experience, and a communication specialist to our country. The outbreak seems to be affecting people of all socio-economic brackets, so the source must be a food product that is eaten by a wide range of people. The usual suspects such as pate, soft cheeses, smoked fish and guacamole have been ruled out due to the socio-economic factors. It is suspected the source of the outbreak is probably a product, or range of products, from a single company.
In general, in order to minimise the risk of contracting listeriosis, good hygiene is essential. All fresh food must be thoroughly washed and cross-contamination, such as using the same chopping surfaces for meat and vegetable products, must be avoided. It goes without saying, regular hand washing with lots of soap and water, is vital. Concern has been expressed over hand sanitisers, increasingly used due the crippling drought in Cape Town, as often crevices in and around rings, and under fingernails are often missed with this method of hand cleaning.
My heart goes out to all those affected by this outbreak, and I hope the source is identified very soon. The culpable source also better be prepared for a LOT of legal action!!!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listeriosis
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-02-15-sa-gripped-by-listeria-hysteria-as-hunt-for-source-continues/
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-02-13-listeriosis-outbreak-difficult-to-manage-ramokgopa-admits/
images: https://pixabay.com/
