LISTERIA ALERT

Listeria is an infectious bacteria that is particularly dangerous to a pregnant woman's fetus.

Watching the news today I came across a story that all pregnant woman will have to know about. Listeria is once again in the news. 

Every once in awhile there will be a public health alert about some particular food that has become a danger to the public. The American Food and Drug Administration has the mandate to keep our food safe, identify the risks to the public, and eliminate or mitigate the risks somehow. Frequently that will mean recalls. Often the recalls will be some kind of vegetable. I can remember spinach, melons, packaged salad, and very frequently frozen hamburger meat. Once in the past it was Hummus. This time it is some kinds of Sabra hummus. Here is a link to the CNN article. I am sure this article will be updated as more information becomes available. 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/19/health/hummus-sabra-recalled/index.html 

Oddly, the article does not mention pregnant woman. In pregnancy the infection to the mother can be a relatively mild flu like illness, but the bacteria gets into the fetus and severely, permanently, or fatally injures the fetus. It is very difficult or impossible to identify the illness in the early stages. The most common diagnosis is on culture of the infected fetal tissues. By then, the damage is to late and many times irreversible. 

The best defense against listeria monocytogenes is avoidance. There are particular food rules that most pregnant woman are aware of to never eat certain foods. Like unpasteurized soft cheeses. This is a basic rule of pregnancy. I think I am going to survey my pregnant patients about this knowledge. And report the results here. Results to be announced. 

Here is the wikipedia page. I last looked at this on Sunday November 12th at 2:30 eastern standard time. (wikipedia pages can change all the time). 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listeria_monocytogenes

Sabra is my favorite hummus. Hummus is vegan, extremely healthy, and really yummy. I will not stop buying it. But please throw away any of the listed versions. And for now, pregnant woman should avoid this Sabra hummus. 

It would be too easy to say that Sabra Hummus company is committing a malfeasance by producing hummus like this. I would ask all of you to consider an alternative view. My view, and your view should be, that Sabra is making an effort to keep their food safe, and doing this voluntarily. How many companies do quality control like this? It was not long ago that a peanut butter company did quality control but hid the results and shipped the infected food anyway. This led to unprecedented criminal charges against the leadership of that company. 

But worse, how many companies don't do quality control so effectively? How many don't do it at all? Large egg farms, for instance, have the hens living in poultry barns where there feces exist. This is utterly unavoidable as the birds cannot be potty trained. And keeping the birds on a grid to let the feces fall will only hurt their feet. 

And smaller companies (and restaurants) that make smaller batches or more "homemade" like food will have no quality control at all, other than the skills and cleanliness of the chefs and workers. There are many instances of Norovirus spreading from mildly infected workers. Workers should voluntarily stay away from work when they are ill, but that will be looked upon as a black mark on their occupational record, and might lower their paychecks. Alternatively, workers should be rewarded for due care to protect the food and their customers. I don't know how employers can commit to this. Personally, I don't come to work when I suspect that I might harbor an illness. And, don't be too surprised, physicians and nurses do get sick. I remember the look of shock once when a delivery man came to my house when I was sick and raised his eyebrows when he saw that I was on a sick day. He said "doctors don't get sick" in surprise. I laughed and said I wish that was so. 

So I believe that Sabra hummus is committing to quality control with vigor and commitment. This will make me more likely to buy Sabra, not less. 

Please let me know what you think in the comments below. 

Thanks for reading. 

http://doctorjohnmarcus.blogspot.com 

Phone 201-447-0077

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Medical Society of New Jersey 

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Member of The Valley Hospital Medical staff Department of Ob Gyn 

-ex Director, Associate Director, Secretary, Chief of Education, Chief of cancer committee. 

- present member of Ob Critical Care Committee 

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