In the summer of 2008 Canadian healthcare professionals noticed an irregularly high incidence of listeriosis cases (“Listeriosis outbreak timeline”, 2009), the disease associated with infection by Listeria. This concern was disregarded until people in a nursing home fell ill and sandwich meat from the same place tested positive for the presence of Listeria monocytogenes (“Listeriosis outbreak timeline”, 2009). On August 12, 2008, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency launched an investigation of the Maple Leaf company and eventually all meat-products produced by Maple Leaf’s Toronto plant were recalled (“Listeriosis outbreak timeline”, 2009). L. monocytogenes is treatable and preventable, despite many resistant characteristics the microorganism
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In fact, Listeria is attributed to somewhere in the range of 20 to 65 percent of foodborne infection deaths in the United States (Bortolussi, 2008; Pan et al., 2006). It is also an economic burden, as the cost of treating meat-product related foodborne disease in Canada is in the hundreds of millions every year, partially due to Listeria (Oussalah, Caillet, Saucier, & Lacroix, 2007). In general, Listeria infection causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract or meningitis (Abuaita & O’Riordan, 2014). In healthy people Listeria tends to be self-limiting since macrophages and monocytes quickly eradicate it (Bortolussi, 2008). Listeriosis has high fatality rates and may cause septicemia, meningitis, or, in rare cases, pleuritis in immunocompromised patients; people undergoing cancer treatment, organ-transplant recipients, people with human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B or C (Ramaswamy et al., 2007; Chaigne et al., 2013). Early diagnosis is crucial since unmanaged Listeria infection can result in death (Bortolussi, 2008). Patients who are suspected to be infected with Listeria are diagnosed by a blood culture (Chaigne et al. 2013) and the treatment of choice is a regular antibiotic such as ampicillin or penicillin (Ramaswany et al., 2007) along with gentamicin in septic
In fact, Listeria is attributed to somewhere in the range of 20 to 65 percent of foodborne infection deaths in the United States (Bortolussi, 2008; Pan et al., 2006). It is also an economic burden, as the cost of treating meat-product related foodborne disease in Canada is in the hundreds of millions every year, partially due to Listeria (Oussalah, Caillet, Saucier, & Lacroix, 2007). In general, Listeria infection causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract or meningitis (Abuaita & O’Riordan, 2014). In healthy people Listeria tends to be self-limiting since macrophages and monocytes quickly eradicate it (Bortolussi, 2008). Listeriosis has high fatality rates and may cause septicemia, meningitis, or, in rare cases, pleuritis in immunocompromised patients; people undergoing cancer treatment, organ-transplant recipients, people with human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B or C (Ramaswamy et al., 2007; Chaigne et al., 2013). Early diagnosis is crucial since unmanaged Listeria infection can result in death (Bortolussi, 2008). Patients who are suspected to be infected with Listeria are diagnosed by a blood culture (Chaigne et al. 2013) and the treatment of choice is a regular antibiotic such as ampicillin or penicillin (Ramaswany et al., 2007) along with gentamicin in septic