Fear of Listeria outbreak in Australia.

A new case of Listeria was detected in Australia. An elderly woman died on 8th January at the Queen Elizabeth hospital as she was suffering from advance stage of cancer . She was tested positive for Listeria.

This has created a lot of confusion among the health care officials in Australia. This woman came from interstate and was admitted in the Adelaide hospital and for cancer treatment. But the hospital authorities say that the cause of death cannot be Listeria, as she was not given any high-risk diet like meat.

Listeria is mostly transmitted through meat and it has an incubation period of 90 days.

However similar cases were reported in the tail end of last year in some of the south Australian hospitals. Two deaths were witnessed by the Royal Adelaide and Gawler hospitals late last year.

They were also found to have Listeria. But they also suffered from other ailments, one from advanced stages of cancer and the other from diabetes. This infection was found to spread in meat products that lacked proper hygiene.

The meat products were sourced back to Conroy's small goods company, which was responsible for the spread of Listeria infection.

Health Minister John Hill has told the press that the death of the woman is not linked to Listeria. The hospital authorities confirmed that they did not serve the meat from Conroy's small goods company.

Advertisement

An enquiry was ordered to probe the cause of death of the two patients who died last year and were tested positive for Listeria.