What is listeria?

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What is listeria?

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Listeria is a bacterium with one unusual talent: it grows at refrigerator temperatures, so chilled ready-to-eat foods are its home turf, which is why the risky foods are things like soft cheeses, cold deli meats, smoked fish, and pre-packaged sandwiches and salads. The CDC says listeria can cause two kinds of illness: an intestinal one, days of diarrhea and vomiting, and an invasive one, where it spreads beyond the gut to cause fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and seizures. Who actually needs to worry: the CDC names pregnant women, newborns, adults 65 and older, and people with weakened immune systems as those it can especially harm, and notes other people rarely become seriously ill. In pregnancy the stakes are specific: the NHS says listeriosis can cause miscarriage or stillbirth or make a newborn very unwell, which is why the pregnancy food rules exist. Prevention is temperature and timing: keep the fridge at 5°C or below, respect use-by dates on ready-to-eat foods, heat deli meats and ready meals until steaming, and avoid the classic high-risk list in pregnancy and when immunocompromised. Fever or flu-like symptoms after a high-risk food, in a high-risk person, is a call-the-doctor situation because listeriosis responds to antibiotics when caught.

What is listeria?

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