South Africa is currently under a bacterial attack!!! What is listeriosis?
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!!!
@onetree
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listeriosis
images: https://pixabay.com/
feeling very sad to read out your article,
hope you will remain safe everywhere and all the time.
@onetree you are nice and supporter for me that's why I will pray for your long and healthy life.
by @fruityfinkamran
Thank you
MY PLEASURE @onetree and hope you are the great lady and show your greatness by doing my upvotes on motivational post which can inspire you and make you alive i every condition.
Gosh that's awful! Hope they find the source soon!
So do I!!!
It is a very disturbing situation @onetree. I work at a preschool/jp school in KZN and it can be a challenge to prevent the spread of germs etc. While we celebrate the departure of JZ we have to be on high alert for signs of this disease!
Luckily KZN is not that badly affected, yet! Where in KZN are you from? I am from Newcastle.
I am from Leisure Bay and work in Port Edward. We're on the border of the Eastern Cape.
OMG I read your article so sad that most of the victims are babies and pregnant women be careful @onetree also to your family that was so terrable.
It is very sad. Fortunately we are quite healthy, but it sounds like an awful thing to contract.
It so scary to be in a place being infected by such bacteria causing such disease and killing pregnant woman and babies.. so sad to hear about your sister and his husband hoping and praying for them to get well soon. Keep safe always you and your family and lets pray that the source of the disease can be detected soonest so that the cost of the affected person or area wont rise to big numbers. Keep praying. God bless
Thank you @roselyn028 I am sure the source of the problem will be identified.
Your welcome @onetree. Keep safe and do take good care (you and your family)
This is frightening! Some people might think they just have a normal cold until the symptoms become really worse!
I think you should be quite safe in your town! Don't travel far!
The problem is if it is a common supermarket brand, no-one is safe!
Those hand sanitizers make me so nervous. They may kill 99.9% of germs but it's the 0.1% left that'll evolve into the next killer.
Sorry to hear your sister and her husband went through that. Is this contagious or can it only be spread through contaminated food?
Listeriosis is only spread through contaminated food. I really dislike hand sanitisers. The chemical smell makes me sick. (I can't even use toilet spray for the same reason). I just don't feel clean without soap!!!
I'm glad it's not contagious! I'd hate to hear that your sister was patient zero for an outbreak in New Zealand!
SA already has such a bad rep.
Oh! .. In every two years we learn some new disease... swine flu HN1 HN1A now listeriosis... whats happening to this world :(
we hope Africa will be better in the future, also we hope we all give support to Africa.
Nice post