Listeria and Listeriosis

The information on Listeria monocytogenes and listeriosis comes from the US FDA.  This form of food poisoning is not addressed in any off-grid medicine books, likely for a few reasons:

• Most healthy people will recover without incident
• It will be difficult to identify without a laboratory
• There are only 1500 cases per year in the US

However, the outcome is serious for some groups of people, and knowing what foods to avoid and where Listeria thrives is essential to reducing your risk.

Unlike most bacteria that cause food poisoning, Listeria bacteria thrive at refrigerator temperatures.  Dairy products--milk, cheese, ice cream--these bacteria love it all.  They especially thrive in raw, unpasteurized dairy products.  Hot dogs and deli meats have also caused serious outbreaks.  Avoiding these foods is the best choice for preventing a Listeria infection, but it is absolutely critical for pregnant women.

For most people, Listeria causes only mild flu-like symptoms.  But for the immunocompromised and pregnant, it can cause miscarriages, meningitis, and sepsis, and as such may be fatal.  The more serious symptoms of listeriosis include:

• flu-like symptoms, including fever, headache, and achy muscles
• stiff neck
• joint pain
• dizziness
• loss of balance
• confusion
• convulsions

Fortunately, there are only about 1500 cases of listeriosis documented in the US each year.  However, of these cases, 260 will be fatal.  Without a functioning laboratory and because symptoms are very similar to many other illnesses, listeria will be difficult to identify.  Another factor complicating diagnosis is the fact that the illness can begin the same day the offending food was eaten, or up to seventy days later.  Gastroenteritis due to Listeria usually begins within a few hours to 2-3 days.  The severe, invasive form of the disease incubates anywhere from three days to three months.

The statistics for mortality from Listeria are as follows:

• Severe infections have an overall 15-30% mortality rate.
• Severe infections involving septicemia have a 50% mortality rate.
• Severe infections with meningitis have a 70% mortality rate.  This is the most common route in the elderly and immunocompromised.
• Severe infections in newborns have an 80% mortality rate.  
• One-third of maternal cases result in miscarriage and stillbirth. 

Risk factors for listeriosis include:

• being pregnant.  Pregnant women are ten times more likely to contract Listeria than the general population.
• being Hispanic and pregnant.  This group is twenty-four times more likely to contract Listeria.
• being the infant of someone who had listeriosis while pregnant.
• being over the age of 65.  This group of people is four times more likely to develop a listeria infection than the general population.  It is due to decreased stomach acid production (stomach acid kills listeria), a weaker immune system, and or being on medications that weaken the immune system.  
• being on stomach acid-reducing medications.
• being immunocompromised.  

Physicians administer intravenous penicillin G and gentamicin for three weeks.  Intravenous TMP/SMZ 3-5 mg/kg for three weeks is another option.  
Listeria is a Gram-positive bacteria.  Listeria infections may be treated with juniper, honey, usnea, colloidal silver, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, and/or garlic.

Links to related posts:
Juniper
Honey
Usnea
Colloidal Silver
Oregano 

For further reading:
https://www.fda.gov/media/83271/download

 4.29.20