Sue Fleming was a lifelong lover of liverwurst and enjoyed the smoked sausage her husband brought home from the delicatessen section of the supermarket every few weeks.
Patrick Fleming always made sure to buy Boar’s Head Braunschweiger, the variety she liked best, even though it could be more expensive than other brands.
“My whole family loves Braunschweiger,” said Sue Fleming. “On bread with lettuce, a little mayo and a slice of gherkin.”
But the 88-year-old from High Ridge, Missouri, is thinking about her favorite snack after falling ill with a fatal bout of listeria food poisoning that has been linked to a nationwide recall of 7 million pounds of Boar’s Head deli meats.
The retired psychotherapist and author said she spent nine days in the hospital and 11 days in a rehabilitation center last month because doctors diagnosed a listeria infection. She and her husband are suing Boar’s Head and Schnuck Markets Inc., which sold the sausage meat, according to court documents filed July 26 in a Missouri court.
By early August, 43 people had become ill and three of them had died – one in New Jersey, one in Illinois and one in Virginia.
“We didn’t want anyone else to get hurt,” Fleming said in an interview.
Boar’s Head also faces a class action lawsuit filed in federal court in New York on August 1. Rita Torres of Queens County alleges that the company improperly and deceptively marketed its products and that she would not have purchased the product if the company had warned of listeria contamination.
Health officials in Maryland and New York discovered listeria in unopened Boar’s Head liver sausage products and later confirmed it was the same strain of bacteria that was making people sick. The company issued an initial recall on July 25 and expanded it on July 30 to more than 70 products made at its Jarratt, Virginia, plant.
Fleming’s illness underscores how serious listeria infections can be in vulnerable people, especially the elderly, pregnant women or those with weakened immune systems. Victims of the outbreak range in age from 32 to 94 – the average age is 74, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For most people, food poisoning from bacteria such as listeria is an inconvenience that can cause nausea and diarrhea for a few days. But for those most at risk, the infections can be more dangerous and even fatal, says Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University.
“The pathogen can travel from the intestine into the blood and cause invasive disease,” Kowalcyk said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1,600 people in the United States become ill from listeria infections each year and about 260 people die from them.
According to the CDC, pregnant women are about 10 times more likely to become infected with listeria than the general population. Such infections can cause miscarriages or serious illness in the baby after birth. One pregnant person became ill in the outbreak but did not lose the baby, CDC said.
Ashley Solberg of Minnesota sued Boar’s Head on Aug. 7, claiming she “almost lost her unborn child,” according to documents filed in federal court. She said she was 35 weeks pregnant with her second child when she purchased Boar’s Head deli meats in May and sold them at a Publix store in Hollywood, Florida.
After returning to Minnesota, Solberg became seriously ill with a listeria infection that was confirmed to be consistent with the outbreak strain. She was hospitalized for six days and given antibiotics for over a week, the lawsuit says.
In Missouri, Fleming’s doctors feared it might be sepsis, a dangerous blood infection, or whether the bacteria had spread to her heart or brain. In fact, the infection worsened Fleming’s existing health problems, including severe spinal arthritis. She was ill for weeks and too weak to walk, her husband said.
“I was very scared for Sue and afraid of losing her,” he said.
Listeria is also dangerous for older people because they eat a less varied diet and store food for longer periods of time. Unlike other germs, the bacteria survive and even multiply when refrigerated, Kowalcyk said. In previous listeria outbreaks involving cantaloupe, for example, a higher proportion of older people who bought pre-cut cantaloupe melons were harmed.
Symptoms of a listeria infection can take days or weeks to appear, making it difficult to determine the cause. Because all listeria infections must be reported, Fleming County health officials called and asked her to fill out a detailed questionnaire that included “dozens and dozens” of food items, Patrick Fleming said.
The couple narrowed down the possible culprits to ready-made tuna salad and chicken salad, pepperjack cheese – and the Braunschweiger.
Boar’s Head is asking consumers to throw away the recalled products or return them to the store for a refund. By now, the deli meats affected by the Boar’s Head recall should be off the shelves of local stores, Kowalcyk said. Consumers should feel free to ask deli managers if they have complied with the recall and sanitized the slicers.
Heating sausage to the point of steaming, i.e. to a temperature of about 74 °C, can kill the bacteria.
But if there is any doubt, “throw it away,” Kowalcyk said. “Is it worth throwing away a few dollars worth of deli meats to prevent serious illness?”
Copyright 2024 Florida Health News
