Deadly listeria has spread to Amathole District municipality, Mayor Winnie Nxawe announced today.
This follows a case of a four-month-old babygirl from Libode last month, while earlier this month the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality confirmed two cases of the food-borne disease in the metro.
ADM spokesman Siyabulela Makhunga said ADM senior health officials confirmed on Tuesday that a pensioner from the Raymond Mahlaba municipality was confirmed to have tested positive for the bacteria, while the second case is a 22-year-old from Mnquma.
Listeriosis is a serious bacterial infection caused by the rod shaped bacteria listeria monocytogenes. The bacterium is spread when people eat food contaminated with the bacterium.
Latest statistics of confirmed cases -- in what has been described as the biggest listeriosis outbreak -- is now 767‚ up from 748 on January 12, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) .
The Times reported that scarily‚ the 235 cases for which the NICD has “outcome data” reveals the death rate to be an alarming 34%.
Get tomorrow's copy of the Saturday Dispatch for more details.