Publisher’s Platform: Public Health — See the Evil, Hear the Evil, Speak no Evil

– NOTICE –

In what has become an all-too-common and worrying occurrence, another whole genome sequenced (WGS) patient – ​​one of 61 confirmed sick as of June 2024 – came forward long after the outbreak was considered over and without being able to be informed by health authorities that he was in fact a casualty linked to the outbreak.

Let’s put this into perspective. Once a person is ill enough to seek medical treatment and tests positive for Listeria in the blood or spinal fluid, the hospital laboratory has a legal obligation to contact health authorities who will then contact the victim or surviving family (more on this in a moment) and send the Listeria isolate to the state laboratory for genetic testing. Once completed, the test is uploaded to CDC’s PulseNet to compare to other clinical, product, and/or environmental samples – that’s how we arrived at 61 patients – and the outbreak is resolved.

At the same time, local and/or state health authorities not only collect the victim’s bodily fluids, but also fill out detailed questionnaires and collect dietary histories (Listeria has an incubation period of 3 to 70 days), receipts from shopping cards, and debit and credit cards. All with the admirable goal of determining the cause of the outbreak and preventing more disease – and learning how the outbreak happened to try to prevent the next one.

However, once the victim’s link is confirmed and the cause of the outbreak is isolated, it becomes increasingly common to learn that the victim or their family is never informed by health authorities of the cause of the illness or the victim’s link to a confirmed outbreak and its source.

The last call I received was because the victim had read my work in the newspaper and was wondering if I could help her find the cause of her Listeria illness. Well, I did it.

Question, why doesn’t public health do the same?

On July 12, 2024, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) launched an investigation into a multistate listeriosis outbreak linked to retail sliced ​​deli meats. The investigation was sparked when the Maryland Department of Health detected Listeria monocytogenes in a liver sausage sample. In response, the Maryland Department of Health, in conjunction with the Baltimore City Health Department, collected additional unopened liverwurst products from a retail store for testing. Subsequent testing confirmed that these samples were also contaminated with the outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes, identified by whole genome sequencing (WGS).

The USDA traceback investigation, conducted in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state public health partners, narrowed the source of the outbreak to the Boar’s Head plant in Jarratt, Virginia. Epidemiological, laboratory and traceability data showed that sliced ​​meats at deli counters, including Boar’s Head brand liverwurst, were contaminated with Listeria and were responsible for making people sick.

In response to the outbreak, Boar’s Head issued a recall for certain of its deli meat products, including liverwurst, on July 26, 2024. The recall was expanded on July 30, 2024 to include an additional 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products.

This expanded recall affected 71 products manufactured between May 10, 2024 and July 29, 2024, under the defendant’s Boar’s Head and Old Country brands. The affected products included both cured meats and pre-packaged meat and poultry products. These products, carrying “sell by” dates ranging from July 29, 2024 to October 17, 2024, were distributed to retail locations across the United States, with some exported to the Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama. The products affected by the recall have been identified by the establishment number “EST. 12612” or “P-12612” within the USDA inspection mark on product labels.

On July 31, 2024, FSIS suspended all production at Boar’s Head’s Jarratt, Virginia, plant. In mid-September 2024, Boar’s Head announced the indefinite closure of the Jarratt factory, which had been identified as the source of the deadly outbreak, and the permanent cessation of all liver sausage production.

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