During pregnancy, listeriosis often causes miscarriage or stillbirth.
A blood test is the most reliable way to find out if your symptoms are due to listeria monocytogenes.
Pregnant women account for 27% of the cases and immunocompromised persons account for almost 70%.
Scientists are unsure, but they believe that this bacteria can cause upset stomach and intestinal problems just like other food-borne illnesses.
The organism can spread to the blood stream and central nervous system. People with AIDS are at 300 times more risk of serious illness from listeria than the general population. Risk is increased when a person suffers from diseases such as AIDS, cancer, kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, or by the use of certain medications. The symptoms of listeria are very hard to identify because they are just like the flu - high emperature, headache, achy feeling, etc. Listeria infections may create symptoms such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, difficulty breathing, and poor feeding.
The risk of listeriosis can be reduced by taking these precautions:
- Keep raw meat away from raw vegetables and prepared foods. After cutting raw meat, wash the cutting board with detergent before using it for vegetables.
- Wash hands thoroughly after handling raw meat.
- Completely cook all meats and eggs.
- Follow the instructions on food labels. Observe food expiration dates and storage conditions.
Listeria, as it is commonly called, is a pathogen that is far more pervasive than other potentially deadly pathogens, such as E.coli. Complications of Listeria infection include: meningitis, sepsis, miscarriage, stillbirth, pneumonia, shock, endocarditis, abscess (localized infection) formation, and eye inflammation. In the 1980s, the United States government began taking measures to decrease the occurrence of listeriosis.