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Healthwatch
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Listeria infection is rare compared to other types of food-borne illness. But outbreaks from deli meats and other foods do occur from time to time.
What is Listeria?
Listeria infection is a food-borne illness caused by bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes. A Listeria infection is also called listeriosis. Most people develop listeriosis from eating contaminated foods.
Food poisoning from Listeria can be dangerous, or even deadly. About 1,600 people get a Listeria infection each year in the U.S., and about 260 people die from the disease.
How Listeria causes food poisoning
The bacteria that cause listeriosis can be found in moist environments, including soil, water, and decaying vegetation. Animals can also carry Listeria bacteria in their intestines without getting sick themselves. As a result, tood can become infected with Listeria during harvesting, processing, preparation, or storage.
If contaminated food is eaten, the bacteria can cause food poisoning.
Symptoms of listeriosis
The symptoms of listeriosis vary depending on whether the infection is limited to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract or has spread beyond the gut.
People infected with Listeria may feel symptoms within a few hours or days after eating contaminated food. Intestinal symptoms include diarrhea and vomiting. Symptoms usually resolve within three days, and most people feel better with rest and drinking plenty of fluids.
Invasive listeriosis, the term for listeriosis that spreads beyond the GI tract, can take several weeks to cause symptoms. Symptoms of invasive Listeria infection include:
A severe Listeria infection may spread to the bloodstream or brain. Severe infections may cause life-threatening conditions such as sepsis, meningitis, or encephalitis.
Some pregnant women who develop listeriosis have no symptoms or have mild symptoms. However, infection during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, or a serious infection in the newborn.
Foods most likely to be contaminated with Listeria
The foods that are most likely to be contaminated with Listeria include:
While these foods have the highest risk of Listeria monocytogenes contamination, listeriosis can affect almost any improperly handled or prepared food.
How to reduce your risk of food poisoning
Some tips to reduce your risk of food poisoning from listeriosis or other food-borne illnesses, such as Salmonella poisoning, include the following:
Other steps you can take to reduce your risk of food poisoning include washing your hands before and after handling food, and using separate cutting boards and utensils for produce and raw meats or seafood.
A food thermometer can help ensure that meat, poultry, fish, and other foods are cooked to a safe internal temperature.
Raw pet food is another potential source of Listeria contamination, so take care when preparing your pet's meals.
Who is at greatest risk for severe illness from Listeria?
People at greatest risk for severe illness from Listeria include pregnant women, newborn babies, people ages 65 and older, and people with a weakened immune system, such as those being treated for cancer.
Listeria can harm a fetus even if the mother has mild symptoms. About one in four pregnant women who get listeriosis will miscarry or lose their baby shortly after birth.
What to know about food recalls
When a number of people get sick from eating or drinking the same contaminated food, it's defined as a food-borne disease outbreak. This can lead to a food recall by the U.S. government.
If a food in your home matches the details on a food recall notice, don't open or consume the product. Instead, bring the product to the place where you bought it for a refund, or dispose of it to make sure no one will consume it.
FoodSafety.gov, a U.S. government website, maintains a current list of food recalls and food-borne disease outbreaks, and advises what to do with a recalled product.
Treating food poisoning caused by Listeria
Most people with intestinal symptoms of listeriosis, such as vomiting and diarrhea, recover within a couple of days with rest and fluids.
Women who are pregnant will be prescribed an antibiotic to treat listeriosis. Antibiotics are also prescribed to people who are very ill or who are at risk of becoming very ill with an invasive Listeria infection.
Source: Harvard Health Publishing
Instablog9ja
8 hrs
30
A fan of actress, Regina Daniels has expressed serious concerns about how much efforts she puts into editing her pictures she posts on social media.
She made emphasis on how the actress goes about editing various aspects of our appearance in order to look perfect with her photos on online , which, according to her doesn’t make her look natural.
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Instablog9ja
18 hrs
97
The Federal Government says it has saved $20 billion by removing petrol subsidy and adopting market-based foreign exchange pricing.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, revealed this at an event in Abuja.
Edun stated that the two subsidies were costing the country five percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“When there was a subsidy on PMS and on foreign exchange, they collectively cost five percent of GDP. Assuming GDP was $400 billion on average, five percent of that is $20 billion — funds that could now go into infrastructure, health, social services, and education.”
The real change is that no one can wake up and target cheap funding or forex from the Central Bank to enrich themselves without adding value. Similarly, profiteering from the inefficient petrol subsidy regime is no longer possible,” he said.
It must be recalled that President Bola Tinubu officially ended the petrol subsidy regime on May 29, 202M
Instablog9ja
19 hrs
18
A business owner has confessed to selling a product at 17 times its price, still labeling it ‘affordable for Nigerians’ in a viral post.
She said she once sold a product 17 times its cost price and it was still affordable for Nigerians.
Instablog9ja
20 hrs
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The Catholic Diocese of Auchi, Edo State, announced on Sunday the death of Rt. Rev. Monsignor Thomas Oleghe, who passed away at the age of 104.
In a statement from the Bishop of Auchi Diocese, His Lordship Gabriel Dunia, Monsignor Oleghe, the oldest Catholic priest in Nigeria, died at approximately 2:30 a.m. on November 24, 2024.
The statement expressed deep gratitude for the late Monsignor’s long and impactful life. It read, “With gratitude to God for a life well lived on earth, I hereby inform you of the passage of Rt. Rev. Monsignor Thomas Oleghe, the oldest Catholic priest in Nigeria, to the great beyond at about 2:30 a.m. on the 24th of November, 2024. He was of the Diocese of Auchi. May his lovely and gentle soul continue to rest in perfect peace. Amen.”
The diocese further announced that the funeral for the late Monsignor will be celebrated on Wednesday, November 27, 2024.
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Instablog9ja
22 hrs
14
A man has discovered that his wife has been inflating kids’ school fees, overcharging him by ₦500k per term for years.
The kids school fee for the 2 kids that this couple living in Amuwo Odofin Lagis have together is 500k, which is 250k per term for one.
Madam told Oga that it is 1 million that is the school fees, and since Oga has no reason to doubt the wife, he has been sending the money unfailingly to Madam to pay when the school fees are due to be remitted.
Only for one of Oga’s friends who has his own kids in the school to casually mention the amount he pays as school fees to his friend when they were discussing school fees on WhatsApp. Oga thought the man was lying; the wife of 8 years, the wife of his youth, can’t lie to him now.
He is back to Nigeria now for Christmas break from his base in Europe where he stays and on Friday he went to the school without his wife”s knowledge on how much the kids school fees are.
A shocked man discovered to his chagrin that his wife has been sc@mming him of 500k every term all this while. Why would she do that? He said in tears to his friends, who he brought the matter to. If this woman asks him for 500k, he can easily dash her. Why sc@m it from him in this dubious manner? By betraying him in this manner? He doesn’t deserve it. The tra¥matised man lamented.
