Hospital-acquired listeriosis linked to a persistently contaminated milkshake machine

Abstract

SUMMARY One case of hospital-acquired listeriosis linked to milkshakes produced in a commercial-grade shake freezer machine that remained contaminated following a previous outbreak of listeriosis associated with a pasteurized, dairy-based ice cream product at the same hospital despite repeated cleaning and sanitation. Healthcare facilities should be aware of the potential for prolonged Listeria contamination of food service equipment. In addition, healthcare providers should consider counseling persons who have an increased risk for Listeria infections regarding foods that have caused Listeria infections. The prevalence of persistent Listeria contamination of commercial-grade milkshake machines in healthcare facilities and the risk associated with serving dairy-based ice cream products to hospitalized patients at increased risk for invasive L. monocytogenes infections should be further evaluated.

Listeriosis in mainland China: A systematic review

“…Healthcare-associated listeriosis infections accounted for 33.12% of infections in non-perinatal patients in this study, and 44% were reported in a tertiary hospital in Peking (Wang et al, 2013). High rates of healthcare-associated listeriosis have also been reported in other countries (Maertens De Noordhout et al, 2016;Mazengia et al, 2017). From 1999 to 2010, one listeriosis outbreak involving 82 patients aged between 8 and 12 years was reported in mainland China; this was caused by the contamination of meals at an elementary school (Feng et al, 2013).…”

Healthcare-associated foodborne outbreaks in high-income countries: a literature review and surveillance study, 16 OECD countries, 2001 to 2019*

“…All included publications were in English, except for two publications in German [31,32] and one in Spanish [33]. HA-FBO were reported from 16 OECD countries: Germany [31,32,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], US [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55], UK [56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63], Spain [33,[64][65][66], Japan [67][68][69][70][71], Austria [72][73][74], Australia [75,76], Canada [44,…”

“…Carriers among kitchen personnel or food handlers were reported for eight of 35 (23%) HA-FBO, including outbreaks associated with Salmonella [ 32 , 38 , 43 ], norovirus [ 72 ] and K. pneumoniae [ 65 ]. Insufficient hygiene practices in processing raw foodstuff or inadequate cleaning of the kitchen, equipment or environment were reported in five HA-FBO, caused by Salmonella [ 38 , 84 ], L. monocytogenes [ 50 , 51 ] and K. pneumoniae [ 65 ]. In 29 HA-FBO (16 L. monocytogenes , seven Salmonella , three norovirus, one B. cereus , one E. coli and one Cyclospora cayetanensis HA-FBO), trace-back investigations linked the HA-FBO to caterer companies or suppliers.…”

A Nosocomial Outbreak of Invasive Listeriosis in An Italian Hospital: Epidemiological and Genomic Features

“…Whereas a direct or indirect person-to-person transmission was suggested in some L. monocytogenes nosocomial outbreaks, especially among neonates [ 5 , 15 , 16 ], the majority of transmissions turned out to be linked to contaminated food products such as vegetables [ 17 ], sandwiches [ 18 ], dairy products such as pasteurized milk cheese [ 19 ], ice cream [ 20 ], or milkshakes [ 21 ], meat jelly [ 22 ], or other meat products [ 23 ]. In particular, in 2015 in a Washington State hospital, a case of hospital-acquired listeriosis resulted to be closely related to two previous cases that occurred in the same hospital one year before, and linked to a milkshake machine persistently contaminated despite repeated cleaning and sanitation [ 24 ].…”