Eight new listeriosis cases recorded in one week

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says eight additional listeriosis cases have been reported in the past week, Northglen News reports.

“Since the last situational update on 3 March, 11 additional cases that occurred in 2017 have been identified through laboratory review, and eight additional cases have been reported to the NICD over the last few days,” said the NICD in its situation report on the listeriosis outbreak released on Thursday.

READ MORE: Govt to take measures to deal with listeria-contaminated waste

Last Sunday, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi called an urgent media briefing where he announced that the source of listeriosis had been traced to ready-to-eat, processed meat products from Enterprise Foods.

While another facility, known as Rainbow Chicken Limited (RCL), tested positive for listeria, samples from this facility are not same strain that is causing the outbreak. The cause of the outbreak strain ST6 was confirmed in 16 environmental samples collected from an Enterprise facility.

Processed meat products such as polony, viennas, russians, frankfurters, sausages and cold meat products were listed as no-go zones by the minister.

Since 1 January 2017 and up to Thursday, 967 laboratory-confirmed listeriosis cases have been reported to the NICD from all provinces. Of the 967 cases, 749 cases were reported in 2017 and 218 cases in 2018.

According to the NICD statistics, Gauteng leads with the number of reported cases, with 59% of cases from the province.

The Western Cape is second, with 12% of reported cases and KwaZulu-Natal with 7%. Other cases are spread out across other provinces.

While government has issued a recall on the Enterprise Foods from the market, healthcare workers have been urged to remain alert for new cases that may surface.

Govt to take measures to deal with listeria-contaminated waste

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