Listeria Outbreak

In December 2019, there was a listeria outbreak in the United States, and I found this article to explain what happened. Seven people were infected with listeria across five states and one person died from the infection. The source of listeria was hard boiled eggs from a company called Almark Foods. These eggs were used by other companies to make products that contained hard boiled eggs, so it was difficult for people to know for certain whether or not they had consumed any of the contaminated food. The CDC recommended that people avoid all pre-packaged hard-boiled eggs until they could properly trace the outbreak.

               Another article about this specific outbreak explained the recalls that occurred following this outbreak. Trader Joe’s recalled many of their prepared foods, such as their potato salad, that contained potentially-contaminated eggs. The eggs that were distributed were sold under many different brand names, so the list of recalled products was long. In fact, 88 different products were recalled. This is alarming to me because it would be easy to unknowingly purchase contaminated food. The eggs were produced in Georgia, but they were distributed across the country.

               Listeria infections are uncommon, but they do have a high mortality rate. Some of the symptoms that you should look out for if you are worried that you may have eaten contaminated food include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and fever. Listeria infections are particularly dangerous for pregnant women. An infection can result in miscarriage, stillbirth, or premature delivery. Also, patients on dialysis have a significantly higher chance of getting a listeria infection than other people. These chances are also increased for pregnant women and people with cancer.