The director of a food safety consultancy explains how listeriosis can arise in healthcare settings, and sets out the key priorities to prevent vulnerable patients contracting it.
According to food safety consultancy, STS, which has undertaken recent research on behalf of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to determine what causes outbreaks of the infection in healthcare organisations, ‘there is real concern that listeriosis leads to more fatalities for vulnerable groups than any other food-borne illness in the UK, and that several outbreaks have been linked to consumption of food in hospitals’. Here Fiona Sinclair, a director of STS, shares her insight of how the infection can arise in a hospital setting, and highlights the key areas that senior managers need to address to reduce the risk of vulnerable patients contracting it.
Listeriosis is a relatively rare, but potentially life-threatening, disease caused by infection with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. Symptoms can range from ‘flu-like symptoms and gastroenteritis to septicaemia, meningitis, encephalitis, and miscarriage.
Listeriosis has traditionally been associated with pregnant women and their unborn or new born babies; however there remains perhaps less awareness of the other people who are especially vulnerable, namely the elderly (vulnerability increases with age), and patients who are immunocompromised due to illness/disease (e.g. leukaemia, AIDS, kidney transplant patients), and/or medication/treatment (e.g. with steroids or chemotherapy).
Log in or register FREE to read the rest
This story is Premium Content and is only available to registered users. Please log in at the top of the page to view the full text.
If you don't already have an account, please register with us completely free of charge.
