Residents are warned of “refrigerator bacteria” that are dangerous for pregnant women and seniors

Listers are often referred to as “refrigerator bacteria” because they feel very “comfortable” in both the refrigerator and the freezer. They are also able to survive in a vacuum pack, where they can also grow. With the naked eye, listers go unnoticed, but the cold goes well to the absent heart. They are also happy to make friends with expired products, reports the show “Bez Tabu”.

The director of the State Scientific Institute “Bior” Aivars Bērziņš has studied the listings within the framework of his doctoral dissertation. He points out that listers have been known around the world since the 1920s, when the bacterium was isolated from laboratory animals.

Listeriosis is very dangerous for seniors as well as pregnant women, who are 20 to 30 times more susceptible to this infection. The population at risk is also the population with a weakened immune system, the program reports.

“Listeria is a very small, short, rod-shaped bacterium. In Europe, 2400-2500 people suffer from this infection every year. The main difference from other food infections is that 15-30% of people die from listeriosis. Last year, listeriosis broke out in a fish processing plant in Estonia. Among those affected were not only residents of Estonia, but also residents of Finland, Denmark and Sweden, who had received imported products. ” claims Bērziņš.

Sniedze Laivacuma, an infectologist at Riga East Clinical University Hospital, indicates to the program “Without Taboo” that in a person with a strong immune system, the symptoms of listeriosis may be insignificant. Pregnant women are advised to avoid so-called soft cheeses, which can contain quite a lot of listeria.

“Expectant mothers are likely to have mild symptoms – fever, bone fracture, it will seem like nothing special. The problem is that if this infection is in early pregnancy, then it can end in miscarriage, if it is at the end of pregnancy, then the baby “A child can be born as if a healthy baby, but then he begins to show symptoms, including fever, sepsis,” says the infectologist. Listeriosis cannot be contracted by contact with an infected person. The patient is most often hospitalized and treated with antibiotics.