In Hesse, two people died after the consumption of sausage products that were contaminated with Listeria. The most important questions and answers to these pathogens.
What is Listeria?
It is bacteria which are present everywhere in the environment – in the soil, on plants, in sewage, such as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) writes. The microbes are very robust, so that you can reproduce, in principle, even at refrigerator temperatures. The Listeria-type, which most of the disease triggers in humans is Listeria monocytogenes.
How can you get infected with Listeria?
Usually people via contaminated food with Listeria get. The can be animal products, such as in the current case, sausage. However, there are also cases in which salads were Listeria-loaded.
What happens after the consumption of contaminated food?
People with healthy immune systems don’t become ill after eating Listeria-contaminated food, usually. Or you only have a short fever, and diarrhea.
Dangerous pathogen for people with weakened immune systems, such as patients with a chronic disease, or a transplanted Organ. Even newborns and the elderly are at risk.
A more severe disease develops in those Affected, one speaks of a listeriosis. It initially resembles an influenza – with fever and muscle pain. Can occur diarrhea and vomiting. In the further course of development of a life-threatening Sepsis, which can lead to failure of multiple organs. In addition, the brain is inflammation of the skin, a risk. Therefore, the risk of listeriosis can result in death.
A Listeria infection is also a greater risk in pregnancy. The unborn child can be infected and become ill. According to the U.S. center for disease control CDC, listeriosis results in pregnancy in one of five cases of a miscarriage.
How often listeriosis occurs?
The number of listeriosis cases in Germany in the year according to the RKI between about 300 to 770.
How is it treated?
Listeria can be combated with antibiotics. Despite this possibility, the disease is often curable. According to RKI approximately 21 percent of the patients with a Listeria-induced Sepsis, as well as 13 percent of the patients had developed the infection from meningitis died in the past few years.
How can you prevent infection?
The RKI recommends at-risk groups, particularly Pregnant women and to refrain from patients with a suppressed immune system – some of the food in which Listeria can attack more likely to occur. Risky is, in principle, what is raw:
- raw meat products such as ground pork,
- Raw sausages such as Salami,
- raw fish, for example Sushi,
- Raw milk soft cheese
- and also pre-cut, packaged lettuce
The RKI reports of listeriosis outbreaks caused by contaminated sour milk cheese made from pasteurised milk and the rates here are also at-risk groups, to prefer not to.