Listeriosis horror: How much-loved snack nearly killed dad

The number of confirmed listeriosis cases continues to rise‚ but at about half the rate than before the Health Department’s bombshell March 4 announcement that Tiger Brands’ Enterprise plant in Polokwane was the source of the outbreak.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ (NICD) latest report on South Africa’s devastating listeriosis outbreak – the world’s worst on record – reveals that confirmed cases since last January now number 1‚019‚ with 199 deaths.

One of the confirmed cases is the 61-year-old Kogilan Naicker of Merebank‚ south of Durban‚ who spent three months in hospital before being transferred to a rehabilitation facility after contracting meningitis and listerioisis.

There were only eight new cases since the previous weekly report – one of them dating back to last October – compared with at least 30 at the height of the outbreak‚ the NICD pointed out.

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