IN an effort to prevent future Listeriosis outbreaks, the National Department of Health (NDoH) has formed a multi-sectoral incident management team (IMT).

According to the NICD, the number of cases of laboratory-confirmed Listeriosis reported per week has dropped since the implicated products were recalled on 4 March, with eight additional cases reported this week.

“The formation of a multisectoral incident management team, and development of a listeria emergency response plan will strengthen the response to the listeria outbreak, and contribute to health system strengthening to prevent future outbreaks. Funding is being sourced,” said the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in a situation report released on Monday.

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“Of the eight cases reported this week, one case occurred in October 2017 and was retrospectively reported,” said the NICD.

In March, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced that ready-to-eat cold meat products by Enterprise Foods were the culprits for the Listeriosis outbreak in the country.

While another facility, Rainbow Chicken Limited (RCL), tested positive for listeria, samples from this facility were not the same strain linked to the outbreak. The cause of the outbreak, strain ST6 was confirmed in 16 environmental samples collected from an Enterprise facility.

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Processed meat products such as polony, viennas, russians, frankfurters, sausages and cold meat products were listed as no go zones by the Minister.

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