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Outbreak
Of Food Poisoning Hits Chile,
Kills 5
Source of Article: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=321855&CategoryId=14094
91 people affected so far by bad brie cheese listeriosis
outbreak.
SANTIAGO -- Chilean health authorities said that
the number of deaths in Santiago
following an outbreak of listeriosis detected in a
type of brie cheese has risen to five people and not four as officials
announced two days ago.
Thursday's report establishes that the deceased include a newborn baby, a
little boy, two adults and one person suffering immune deficiency, the latter
being the one added to the list of victims.
Health authorities ordered that Brie Lescure
cheeses be taken off the market after finding that they contained the
Listeria monocytogenes bacteria - which causes the
infection - in a sample taken from the refrigerator of a 60-year-old man
suffering from the disease.
According to the official report, 91 people have so far been found to be
infected, of whom 42 percent are pregnant and form part of the highest-risk
group.
Of the total number of infected patients, 59 percent live in the Las Condes and Vitacura districts
of eastern Santiago.
Chile
has between 20 and 25 cases a year of listeriosis,
which poisons food, but during 2008 the number soared to 91 cases.
The director of the Public Health Institute, Ingrid Heitmann,
said that currently there are between two and three cases of listeriosis per week.
The disease chiefly affects people with immune deficiency and pregnant women
and can cause attacks of the nervous system, meningitis or pneumonia, and can
even prove fatal to newborn babies and the elderly. EFE
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