South Africa’s public health institute confirms source of listeriosis outbreak
According to the Independent Online, South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has refuted claims that the primary source of the country’s listeriosis outbreak is still unknown, and that Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi had backed down on his previous announcement that the source had been identified.
According to the Independent Online, South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has refuted claims that the primary source of the country’s listeriosis outbreak is still unknown, and that Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi had backed down on his previous announcement that the source had been identified. The outbreak has caused the death of 183 people in the country.
This follows an independent investigation instituted by the implicated Rainbow Chicken Ltd. (RCL), which found its Wolwehoek polony (bologna sausage) plant in the Free State was clear of the outbreak strain of listeria, L. monocytogenes ST6, which caused most listeriosis cases.
The RCL had recalled ready-to-eat products and temporarily closed the plant as a precautionary measure in March after Motsoaledi said the listeriosis outbreak had been traced to the Wolwehoek plant and Tiger Brand’s Enterprise facility in Polokwane.
The institute said it undertook an intensive process to identify the source of the outbreak, with 86% of affected patients reporting eating polony in the month before falling ill with listeriosis. A key breakthrough came when a group of nine children attending the same daycare in Soweto, South Africa, developed febrile gastroenteritis in January. The outbreak strain was identified in one child and in three samples of two brands of polony from the refrigerator at the daycare.
Enterprise Foods’ Polokwane facility was visited by experts and extensive testing done. The L. monocytogenes ST6 outbreak strain was found in the post-cooking processing environment and on the final polony products. Additional results from samples of products produced at the Enterprise Polokwane production facility and sold at the Enterprise Germiston factory shop tested positive for the outbreak strain.
“This means that the outbreak strain has been found inside the ready-to-eat processed meat products manufactured at Enterprise Foods’ Polokwane production facility, dispelling claims made to the contrary,” wrote the NICD in a statementon its website.