Outbreak of hospital-acquired gastroenteritis and invasive infection caused byListeria monocytogenes, Finland, 2012

Abstract

During one week in July 2012, two patients from the same ward at the municipal hospital in Vaasa, Finland, were diagnosed with septicaemia caused by Listeria monocytogenes. An outbreak investigation revealed eight concomitant cases of febrile gastroenteritis caused by L. monocytogenes on the same ward. Median age of the cases was 82 years and median incubation time for listerial gastroenteritis was 21 h (range 9-107). An additional 10 cases of invasive listeriosis caused by the same outbreak strain were identified across the whole country during the summer of 2012. Environmental investigation at the affected municipal hospital ward revealed ready-sliced meat jelly as the suspected source of the infection. During inspection of the meat jelly production plant, one pooled sample taken from a floor drain and a trolley wheel in the food processing environment was positive for the outbreak strain of L. monocytogenes. After the producer stopped the production of meat jelly, no further cases of listeriosis with the outbreak strain were identified via nationwide surveillance.

Design Elements of Listeria Environmental Monitoring Programs in Food Processing Facilities: A Scoping Review of Research and Guidance Materials

“…As such, the objective of EM will inform the timing and frequency of sampling. For example, nine outbreak investigations from years 1989 to 2016 reported focused and detailed sampling investigations of food processing facilities, taking between 19 and 282 samples when production was stopped in order to find the source of Lm associated with cases of human listeriosis (Acciari et al., ; Awofisayo‐Okuyelu et al., ; Dalton et al., ; Gaul et al., ; Jacks et al., ; McLauchlin, Greenwood, & Pini, ; Salvat, Toquin, Michel, & Colin, ; Wenger et al., ; Winter et al., ). On the other hand, studies evaluating the efficacy of interventions conducted sampling immediately before and after the intervention, but may also have followed up after months or years of production to determine the long‐term effect of plant‐specific interventions, such as employee training, equipment disassembly during sanitation, or a new disinfectant compound or procedure (Eglezos, Thygesen, Huang, & Dykes, ; Lappi et al., ; Lappi et al., ; Ortiz, Lopez‐Alonso, Rodriguez, & Martinez‐Suarez, ).…”

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 ].…”

Main Groups of Microorganisms of Relevance for Food Safety and Stability

“…Initially, two patients displayed septicemia due to L. monocytogenes infection and after the evaluation of other patients in the same ward revealed that 8 patients were also infected (febrile gastroenteritis). The investigation revealed that jelly meat was the most probable cause that also infected 10 individuals in Finland in that summer (Jacks et al, 2016). In North-East Scotland, three cases of listeriosis (two elderly people and one baby) were registered due to consumption of ready-to-eat food contaminated with L. monocytogenes.…”