With the long timeframe between infection and the onset of symptoms, when should one get testing, particularly if they are especially vulnerable?

Dr. Allison McGeer: Unfortunately, there is no test that can detect listeria in people who are not ill. The testing that doctors do when people are severely ill detects listeria effectively, so that, in the great majority of circumstance, no added testing is needed.

is there a way to determine whether or not you have contracted listeriosis or do we have to wait until symptoms appear, and if so, is time a factor in treatment?

Dr. Allison McGeer: There is no way to test whether you have been exposed to listeria before you get sick. Healthy people who get fever and diarrhea from listeria will recover by themselves and do not need treatment, so that time is not a factor at all. Infants, pregnant women, people whose immune systems are severely suppressed, and the frail elderly can develop more serious illness, which needs to be treated with antibiotics Fortunately, the regular testing that gets done when people appear to have a serious infection will identify the listeria.

Sorry I forgot to add that my mom is 85 years old and a cardiac patient.

Is meat bought and sliced directly at a deli safer than the meat that's already packaged? How can we know if meat at a deli counter is safe to eat?

Dr. Allison McGeer: Whether deli meat is safe to eat depends on how good the manufacturing practices for the food are and how good the deli’s practices are. Whether meat bought and sliced at a deli is safer than that bought prepackaged depends on who exactly prepared the food in each case. It is important to remember that food is very safe in Canada, and that local health departments inspect all restaurants and deli’s to help to keep it that way.

3 weeks ago i ate some smoked pastrami, ever since i have had a flu like symptoms, that mostly last 24hrs, they include, nausea, headach, body aches and sleep alot for the 24 hrs. To date this has hit me 3 times in the following weeks.I don't think that it was maple leaf brand but what could be the reason or is it just bad case of the flu? and bad timing? thanks

Dr. Allison McGeer: Listeria could possibly have caused this illness on one occasion, but it would only happen once.

Is there a specific temperature range which fosters growth of the bacteria? Does refrigeration have any effect?

Dr. Allison McGeer: One of the reasons that listeria can cause foodborne illness is that, unlike most bacteria,it grows well from temperatures close to freezing(0 degrees C) up to body temperature (37 degrees C). Temperatures above 70C for more than a few seconds are usually enough to kill listeria; certainly, if the liquid around the meat is sizzling or boiling, the listeria will be killed.

2 days ago had a stomach flu like sympton, that includes stomach cramping, diarehea,vomiting,body aches and sleeping a lot that lasted 24 hrs.

Today still feel the lingering effect of uneasyness on stomach and no appetite.

Should I be tested or is it just a 24hr bug??.

We have eaten some of the e-zee pizza meat that was listed as one of the first recalls that was infected 97b. We made pizza and baked them at 400 F. Does this cooking get rid of the listeria to be safe to eat?

Dr. Allison McGeer: Listeria are very effectively killed by heat. If you baked the pizza so that the meat was piping hot (cheese bubbling), then the listeria will have been effectively killed.

How easily is listeria transfered to another person? I understand that listeria can be spread by the stools of an infected person. Is this only possible after sympton onset? Is there any precautions that a person should consider if they have eaten some of the recalled or contaminated meat? Spreading listeria to another family member would be a major concern.

Dr. Allison McGeer: Listeria can in theory be passed from person to person via contact with bowel contents, and/or poor hygienic practice. However the only circumstances in which it has been demonstrated to cause illness from mother to baby when a baby is born, or from one infected baby to another in a crowded newborn nursery. As with other bacteria that cause diarrheal illness, it is likely that good hand washing after you go to the bathroom, before you prepare food, and before eating will protect even family members from acquiring this bacteria.

New items are being added daily to the list of recalled food that may be tainted. What suggestion would you have for someone who has already consumed the item that now gets put on the list? Are there things we can do at home as a first line of defense after we've consumed the product unknowing that it would be placed on a list?

Dr. Allison McGeer: The most important thing to remember is that most of this recall is precautionary and most of the food being recalled has likely not been contaminated. It is also important to remember that the risk to an individual person is very low — hundreds of thousands of people have eaten the recalled food, but only a handful of people who are not residents of nursing homes or patients in hospitals have become seriously ill. If you are healthy and under 65 years of age, you are much more likely to die in a car accident in the next few days that you are to develop serious illness.

my husband and i had a sandwich 2 go from A&P SHOULD WE BE TESTED

Should I worry about meat and fish coming from Loblaw's?

Would the symptoms for my 4 year old be different from mine. And if so, what is the first thing that I could expect from Listeriosis with my 4 year old???

Dr. Allison McGeer: Healthy children over the age of 1 year very rarely get any symptoms from listeria. Assuming that your child is healthy, the worst that might happen is that he or she might get some diarrhea or a fever for a day or two (this has not been described, but there are many, many causes of mild fever and diarrhea in children). However he or she will not develop serious illness.

How long does Listeriosis (the symptoms)last when not recognized and not treated? Thank you

If I have eaten processed deli meats that may have been processed at Maple Leaf Plant 97B, should I see a doctor for myself and my mother in her nursing home, for:
- a blood test to see if I'm a carrier?
- a shot/treatment of an antibiotic, just to be safe?
Thank you.

Dr. Allison McGeer: If you are not sick, you do not need to worry. You may be colonized with listeria; however, listeria is not passed from person to person — except from mother to baby at the baby’s birth. So you do not put other people at risk. You may develop illness, but it is very unlikely that you will do so.

In addition, it sounds like you are under 65 years of age; if you are not taking medications that suppress your immune system, it is extremely unlikely that you will become ill. If your mother lives in a nursing home, the facility will know whether they have used any of the foods affected by the recall. If they have not, your mother is not a risk (assuming that she was not exposed to them eating somewhere other than the nursing home). If they did use these foods, then your mother may have been exposed, and is at some risk until the outbreak is declared over.

The risk is small (less than 30 of the more than 500,000 residents of Ontario nursing homes have developed this illness), but it is present. Unfortunately, there is no test that can tell you if you have been exposed, and no treatment that can reduce the risk.

I have 2 young boys ( 21/2 & 41/2 )

They both love cold hot dogs... should i be really worried about them getting ill?

We buy our lunch meat from Sobeys here in Blenheim,was there any contaminated meats there?

Thank you for you time :)

I ate some of the wraps listed one month ago. I have a chronic lung disease for which I am treated by a respirologist at Mt.Sinai H. A bronchoscopy/lavage done a couple of years ago showed a S.Pneumoniae bacterium and I'm in the study at the MSH. Do I need to worry because of a lowered immune system? I am 64 yrs. old.

Dr. Allison McGeer: You are at somewhat higher risk of getting sick than the average person because you are 64, and the older you are, the more likely you are to get sick. If you are taking prednisone or a related medication as pills (rather than an inhaler) that would also increase your risk as well. However, it is important to remember that your risk is still very low. For instance, although all residents of nursing homes in Ontario are at much higher risk than you because they are considerably older (average age 85 years),only a small number of the more than 500,000 residents of nursing homes in Ontario have become ill.

Each case is a tragedy, and we need to be working hard to prevent each and every one. However, for each individual resident of Ontario, the risk is very low. It is also true that most of the food that Maple Leaf Foods recalled was not contaminated, so that you may also not have been exposed.

I had a assorted sub that had meats does Deli
Meats had ant affects on any other products
we eat like snieders meats.

Also what kind of treatment is there listerious.

Let me Know
okay

I have a 4 & 5 year old at home, and Maple Leah all beef bolgna and Maple Leah top dogs are a weekly buy.

Often eaten right from the fridge.

Considering the level of consumption should we seek out testing, or simply wait and see.

Has this outbreak been escalated by pollution in the soil and air, along with water pollution? Could these have been factors?

Could the outbreak have been caused by improper sterilization of equipment? of the improper washing of hands?

Dr. Allison McGeer: As far as we know, pollution does not alter the concentration of listeria in food or water. The information that is available publicly now does not allow us to determine how the contamination occurred. It could be related to poor hand hygiene, or to improper cleaning or disinfection of equipment, or both. It could be that a single thing went wrong (e.g., an improper equipment cleaning practice), but it is more likely that a series of smaller failures occurred simultaneously.

I served a Costco platter 2 weeks ago that has since been voluntarily recalled at my parents anniversary party.

Should I be concerned?

The majority of the guests were over 65.

Can listeria be related to chrones disease? Since listeria can affect the stomach..

Dr. Allison McGeer: Although many people think a bacteria or virus might contribute to, trigger, or aggravate, Crohn’s disease, listeria is not related to Crohn’s disease. In the same way that many different insects can cause bites that itch, many different bacteria, viruses and non-infectious conditions can cause diarrhea.

Is this disease air-born and can it be transmitted from human to human and if so in what way?

Can this disease also spread sexually from one person to another?

How did this outbreak possibly happen,was it from the soil and water supply because I read
has been commonly found in water.

Dr. Allison McGeer: Listeria is a bacterium that is most commonly found in bowels of humans and other animals, but, as you point out, can also live in food, water and many liquids. One of the largest outbreaks was a US outbreak in which there was a failure of the pasteurization process of milk (the risk of Listeria is one of the reasons that unpasteurized milk cannot be sold in most jurisdictions in Canada).

Usually, the concentration of listeria in food and water is too low to be a hazard for people. Illness usually occurs only if food is contaminated with high concentrations of the bacterium. Listeria cannot be spread in the air. It can be passed from mother to baby when babies are born, if mom is carrying it in her bowel. It is theoretically possible that listeria can be passed from person to person with close contact in unhygienic circumstances, or through sexual activity, but this has never been described.

This is probably because listeria is present in low concentrations in the bowels, and the great majority of people who get exposed to low concentrations of listeria don’t get sick.

How long ago did the contamination start? weeks? months? YEARS?

The reason I ask is because we had canned chicken in our pantry from about 3 months ago and we had it for dinner not realizing it was a maple leaf product.

So I wonder how long ago did the actual contamination START!

I am hearing impaired - I cannot quite get what is being said about the processed meat problem, i.e. is the words "white" and "dried" being used to indicated the products to be avoided?

I had flu like symtoms with vomiting and fever, two days ago.

I still feel weak with flu like symtems like aching bones and a headache.

I consumed ML wieners about two weeks ago. Should I be tested?

One month ago, I ate some of the 220 products on the list. No sign of illness yet.

I have a lowered immune system due to lung and heart disease.

A bronchoscopy/lavage done a couple of years ago showed a S.Pneumoniae bacterium and I'm in the study at the MSH.

I am 64 yrs. old. Do I need to worry?

I purchased the Kirkland Signature Smoked Pastrami Beef Rounds from in July.

When the fiasco happened I called Costo to confirm if this product was contaminated. I was told that they don't use Maple Leaf, so I ate the meat (as did my wife and our young boy).

A few days later this product was put on the list, so I called Costco again and was told that they use Maple Leaf but that it was not from that plant.

Later I got more information and called Costco a third time, when I was told that it DID come from that plant and that I should get tested.

So, my doctor gave me a requisition to go to the hospital to do a blood test.

As first the doctor DENIED to give us test since we did not have symptoms.

At first, she insisted that there is no risk (as directed by Public Health) and that we should come back if we are vomitting etc.

I told the doctor, if something happens to our child or us, I will sue you and everyone in this hospital responsable!

Subsequently, she conceded and the test was done.

PLEASE, insist to get tested because they have no IDEA what can happen!

If I eat the tainted meat does that mean that I will get Listeriosis?

If I have a dull head/neck for a week after having come in contact with a recalled source does that mean see your doctor?

If I cannot get into see a health care provider will my body fight it off or is it necessary to use antibiotics to defeat the diease?