WHO Advises Nigeria, Others To Be Wary Of Listeriosis Outbreak

To further contain the spread of the deadly listeriosis disease that has killed at least 100 persons in South Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has advised Nigeria and other African countries to be proactive.

The disease which started in 2017 has created serious concern with the world global body working round to ensure that further deaths are being checked.

A statement released on Wednesday by WHO listed the other countries as Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe

“This outbreak is a wakeup call for countries in the region to strengthen their national food safety and disease surveillance systems,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

Listeriosis is a bacterial infection most commonly caused by Listeria monocytogenes.

It can cause severe illness, including severe sepsis, meningitis, or encephalitis, sometimes resulting in lifelong harm and even death.

With the deadline disease, the South African government has been forced to halt the supply of meat, with the country battling to put the situation under control.

Meanwhile, WHO’s Health Emergencies programme, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) are working with the 16 priority countries to improve their ability to prepare for, detect and respond to potential outbreaks.

Immediate steps will include increasing awareness of listeriosis, enhancing active surveillance and laboratory diagnosis, ensuring the readiness of Rapid Response Teams, and strengthening coordination and contingency planning. Experts have been deployed to South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland to support these efforts.

In March, South Africa hosted a meeting of SADC health ministers to address regional preparedness and response to listeriosis.

The ministers committed to regional collaboration, exchanging information, and strengthening national food safety systems in line with international standards.

The WHO, however, does not currently recommend any trade-related measures in relation to the current outbreak of listeriosis in South Africa, other than the recall of products identified as sources of infection.

Pin-Prick Blood Test Detects Deadly Sepsis – Study

Scientists on Monday unveiled a quick, cheap way to detect sepsis, a life-threatening condition in which the body is attacked by its own immune system.

In clinical trials at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the researchers — analysing a single drop of blood with a thumb-size filtering device — singled out sepsis patients in a matter of hours with 95 percent accuracy.

Currently, nearly a third of sepsis patients are misdiagnosed with devices that can take days to yield results.

For every hour that a sepsis diagnosis is delayed, the risk of death increases by nearly eight percent, previous research has shown.

“We believe that this approach may allow us to identify patients at risk of developing sepsis earlier than any other method,” said Jarone Lee, director of an intensive care unit at Massachusetts General and co-author of a study in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Sepsis occurs when the body’s immune system runs amok in reaction to a major infection, leading to low temperature, vomiting and — in extreme cases — tissue damage, organ failure and death.

The condition affects at least 30 million people worldwide every year, and leaves five million dead, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Up to half of people who survive severe sepsis suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, organ dysfunction or amputations, according to the Sepsis Alliance, a charitable advocacy organisation in the United States.

The test devised by the researchers isolates a specific type of white blood cell, called a neutrophil.

In earlier research, senior author Daniel Irimia, a surgeon at the hospital and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, noticed that spontaneous movements of these white blood cells corresponded to the likelihood that patients would develop sepsis.

Irimia and colleagues developed a small, hand-held device that coaxes neutrophils through a microscopic maze.

“The striking performance” of the device “brings into focus the fundamental role that neutrophils play during sepsis,” Irimia said in a statement.

Follow-up tests with a larger and more diverse group of volunteers are underway.