Abstract:
The listeriosis outbreak that began in early 2017 in South Africa (SA) is
the largest recorded globally. The source of the outbreak was located
in early March 2018, when traces of the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium
were found in a food production facility in Polokwane, Limpopo
Province, SA, which produces ready-to-eat processed meat products. By
the time the source was identified, about 950 cases of invasive disease
had been confirmed and 180 deaths reported, almost certainly underestimates
of the actual extent of the disease. Actions to halt the outbreak,
such as product recalls and closing implicated processing plants,
are clearly an immediate priority, as are steps to enforce environmental
health standards. It is also important, however, to pay attention to factors
relating to the longer-term, structural environment in which such
outbreaks unfold and which may contribute to an increased frequency
of cases in the near future. One such factor is climate change, which
has garnered little attention thus far in the discourse surrounding the
outbreak.
