How could listeriosis affect me and my baby?
Listeriosis isn't likely to seriously affect your health, but it can. People with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to life-threatening complications from the illness, such as blood infection or meningitis, as are newborns and the elderly.
Even if the infection doesn't make you seriously ill, it can have very serious consequences for your developing baby, especially if it's not treated promptly. Listeria can infect the placenta, the amniotic fluid, and the baby, and cause miscarriage and stillbirth.
Infected babies who survive are likely to be born prematurely. Many will be born severely ill or get sick soon after birth, with problems that may include blood infection, difficulty breathing, fever, skin sores, lesions on multiple organs, and meningitis. Unfortunately, some newborns will die from the disease or have long-term complications.
How would I know if I had listeriosis?
You might not know if you had it. Some people have no symptoms. Others have a fever and other flu-like symptoms, such as chills, aches, and headache; back pain; or possibly gastrointestinal symptoms. If the infection attacks your central nervous system, you may have a severe headache, stiff neck, confusion, dizziness, or even convulsions.
Call your healthcare practitioner immediately if you have any of these symptoms. Stomach symptoms, if you get them, generally appear within 48 hours, but other symptoms usually show up two to six weeks or more after you're infected. You'll need a blood test to find out whether your symptoms are caused by listeriosis.
How is listeriosis managed?
You'll be given antibiotics, which will treat your infection and may help protect your baby. Ultrasounds will be done to check for problems and to see how your baby is growing.
What can I do to avoid getting infected?
Here are some guidelines for avoiding this food-borne illness:
Cook all meat, poultry, and fish thoroughly. Use a food thermometer to test the internal temperature of meat. Most meat should be cooked to a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit, or 180 degrees F in the thigh for whole poultry. If you're not actually measuring the temperature of the meat, cook it until it's no longer pink in the middle. Fish should be cooked until the flesh in the middle is opaque. And be sure not to sample your food before it's done.
Don't eat cold cuts or deli meat, refrigerated pts or meat spreads, or refrigerated smoked or pickled fish unless they're cooked until they're steaming hot (say, on a pizza or in a casserole). And even though hot dogs are precooked, be sure to cook them until they're steaming hot. Canned or "shelf-stable" products that don't need to be refrigerated are fine to eat.
Reheat all leftovers until steaming hot.
Avoid unpasteurized (raw) milk and food made with it. Don't eat soft cheese such as feta, Brie, or Camembert; blue-veined cheese; or Mexican-style cheese such as queso blanco, queso fresco, or Panela, unless their labels clearly state that they're made from pasteurized milk. Cottage cheese, ricotta, cream cheese, processed cheese (such as American), and hard cheese (such as cheddar and Parmesan), as well as cultured dairy products like yogurt and buttermilk, are generally considered safe. But to be on the safe side, read the labels on all dairy products to make sure they're made with pasteurized milk.
Thoroughly wash or peel all fruits and vegetables before eating them.
Keep uncooked meat separate from vegetables and from cooked and ready-to-eat food.
Wash counters, cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and your hands with hot soapy water after handling unwashed produce; uncooked meat, poultry, or seafood; hot dogs; and deli meat and before you use them for clean produce or cooked meat so you don't contaminate your food. Be careful not to let juice from the hot dog or poultry package contaminate prep surfaces (such as cutting boards) or other food.
Consume perishable and ready-to-eat food as soon as possible after you buy it, especially once you've opened it, even if it hasn't yet passed the "use-by" date. The use-by date refers to unopened products.
Finally, as a general precaution to help protect your food from contamination from a variety of disease-causing organisms, make sure your refrigerator is set between 35 and 40 degrees F and your freezer at or below zero. Use a refrigerator thermometer to confirm the temperature.
Be aware, though, that listeria is a hardy organism that can survive and even continue to grow in cold temperatures. That's why you should always heat leftovers and ready-to-eat (precooked) food until they're steaming hot.