More listeriosis cases and deaths, but rate slows dramatically
The listeriosis death toll has risen to 193‚ according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ (NICD’s) weekly update on the outbreak. Of those who have died‚ 81 have been babies younger than 28 days. Another 10 deaths were children aged between one and 14 years old.The NICD update reaffirmed that the source of the outbreak was the Tiger Brands Enterprise Foods ready-to-eat meat factory in Polokwane. Polony and other meats from the factory contained the ST6 strain of Listeria monocytogenes responsible for 91% of all deaths. There have been 1,011 confirmed cases of listeriosis and the NICD knows the outcome of 68% of those cases. This means there could be more deaths because the outcomes are not known for a third all people who tested positive for the disease. The majority of cases were from Gauteng. The graph that shows every case of listeriosis‚ known as the epidemiological curve‚ indicates a sharp drop in the number of individuals contracting the disease since the rec...
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