Listeriosis death toll climbs to 189

The death toll from the current listeriosis outbreak has been amended by the National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD) to 189 – up six deaths from its last update.

The NICD on Thursday said it had determined that 189 out of 678 cases of listeriosis have resulted in death based on the final data available. The mortality rate is now at 28%.

“As of 26 March 2018, a total of 982 laboratory-confirmed listeriosis cases have been reported to NICD since 01 January 2017. Most cases have been reported from Gauteng Province (59%,

576/982) followed by Western Cape (12%, 121/982) and KwaZulu-Natal (7%, 71/982) provinces. Cases have been diagnosed in both public (65%, 634/982) and private (35%, 348/982) healthcare sectors,” the institute said on its website.

The NICD has warned that more new cases of listeriosis have been confirmed since the source of the outbreak was identified as ready-to-eat processed meat products manufactured at Enterprise Foods’ Polokwane production facility was announced on March 4.

“A total of 23 laboratory-confirmed cases are reported since the recall on 04 March 2018. Of these 23 cases, 17 persons have been interviewed; ten consumed implicated food products and two had direct contact with recalled food products. All exposures occurred prior to the recall.”

The NICD said the reasons for the post-recall new cases may be due to:

• The incubation period of listeriosis can be up to 70 days
• The implicated food products have a long refrigeration shelf life, and it is possible that despite the recall some products were not removed from retail/home settings, and consumption might occur
• The possibility of cross-contamination of other types of foods in the retail or home setting may result in additional cases

Listeriosis class action suit launched

On Friday, an application for a certification of a class action to be brought against Tiger Brands and Enterprise Foods was filed in the High Court in Johannesburg following the deaths and illnesses of more than 180 people linked to the listeriosis outbreak.

The class action suit has been brought by Richard Spoor Attorneys who are working in partnership with US law firm Motley Rice LLC.

Government has urged consumers to observe all sell-by and use-by dates for ready-to-eat products despite all meat being inspected and being safe for human consumption at abattoirs and processing plants.

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