Five cases of listeriosis in Washington State over the past several months may not seem like mass Listeria. But it’s certainly enough to qualify as a Listeria monocytogenes outbreak and get the attention of authorities. Plus, these infections have been so severe that all five adults affected—two men and three women—have had to be hospitalized with three of them having already died, according to the Washington State Department of Health. That’s a bad, bad ratio.
Five cases of listeriosis is already about a fifth to half of what all of Washington State would expect to see throughout the course of an entire year, based on numbers provided by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. A disease outbreak is when you have more cases than you would normally expect. So, the Puget Sound area being caught up in all this Listeria surely counts as an outbreak.
And it’s not as if each of these cases has been a random, separate oh-maybe-he-left-the-Brie-and-hot-dog-casserole-in-the-sauna-for-24-hours-and-then-still-ate-it occurrences. The five cases do in fact seem connected. Four of the five cases have been from Pierce County with the remaining one being from Thurston, the neighboring county. Whole genome sequencing has shown that the bacteria from each cases have similar genetic fingerprints, strongly suggesting a source of the bacteria in common. However, authorities have yet to identify what specifically this source may be. Therefore, at this point, they can’t determine what food may need to be pulled from the market.
Although Listeria monocytogenes can normally be found in the soil, water, decaying vegetation, animal feces and other moist environments around you, you typically don’t swallow such bacteria, unless you are in the habit of eating dirt or animal feces. The route to your mouth is most often through consuming food that’s been contaminated with Listeria. Common culprits are soft cheeses, hot dogs, lunch meats, deli meats, deli salads, refrigerated pâtés, meat spreads, and refrigerated smoked seafood since these frequently are not heated to the over 165°F that’s required to kill the bacteria. This is yet another reason why you shouldn’t drink the cold hot dog juice that’s just been squeezed from hot dog packages. Remember the “hot” in hot dogs.
For people with healthy immune systems, the most common result of ingesting Listeria is several days of a yes-we-can situation with “can” being another word for toilet. That means spending quite a lot of time on the can, since diarrhea, abdominal pain, and nausea are the most common symptoms. High fevers and severe headaches can occur as well, as I’ve described for Forbes previously. Such symptoms tend to develop a few hours to three days after you’ve put contaminated food down your pie hole.
Speaking of hole, things get a whole lot more complicated when listeriosis becomes invasive listeriosis. In this case, it’s not as if the bacteria starts asking you very personal questions. The invasiveness here is physical, meaning that the bacteria goes from your gut and into your bloodstream and potentially spreads to your central nervous system. This is a whole lot more common occurrence in those with weaker immune system such as very young children, adults over 65 years of age, and those with chronic medical conditions. Indeed, all five adults affected so far by this outbreak have all been in their 60s or 70s age-wise with weaker immune systems. Symptoms of invasive listeriosis include headaches, a stiff neck, confusion, a loss of balance, and convulsions. The chances of death go way up to 10% to 20% with such a condition.
Listeria infections can also get real complicated when you are pregnant. Miscarriages, premature deliveries, stillbirths, and infections in the newborn. This is why doctors tell you to avoid food like soft cheeses, refrigerated pates, meat spreads, smoked seafood, animal feces and decaying vegetation if you are pregnant. They aren’t trying to save more such food for themselves. Rather, they are trying to minimize your risk of consuming something contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
Speaking of contaminated, authorities are still trying to identify what food source may have gotten contaminated with Listeria to cause this outbreak. In the meantime, it’s a good idea to take the following precautions. Avoid raw milk and thoroughly cook your meat, meaning the meat that you plan to eat. And before you eat any raw vegetables, wash them thoroughly. Also, thoroughly clean anything that may have touched uncooked foods. Finally, make sure that you eat any perishable foods as soon as you can. Spending too much time admiring such food from afar increases the change that there will be a little Listeria. And a little Listeria can soon turn into a lot of Listeria.
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