Friday, 10. February 2012

:: Home > General News > Two more people develop listeria infections

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
30	31	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	1	2	3	4

Add your event FREE

Today

Polls

11. 03. 10. - 12:00

Two more people develop listeria infections

Two more people have been hospitalised with listeria bacteria infections, the Agency for Health and Nutrition Safety (AGES) announced today (Weds).

AGES said a 70-year-old woman had been hospitalised in Lower Austria with inflammation of the lining of her brain and blood poisoning and a 79-year-old man had been hospitalised in Styria with inflammation of the lining of his brain.

It added that at least one of the two cases of illness had developed after the recall of products contaminated by deadly listeria.

AGES said 17 people had been hospitalised with listeria infections this year, and 12 cases had been linked to contaminated Quargel cheese that was recalled on 24 January. There were 12 cases, including four deaths, last year.

There were serious deficiencies in food controls last year in Styria, the free Styrian weekly newspaper Woche claimed last week.

Woche�s report came in the wake of news about Styrian firm Prolactal, which produced the deadly Quargel cheese that resulted in the deaths of 10 people in Austria and Germany last year.

Woche said lack of personnel had resulted in provincial authorities� failure to engage in at least 1,000 planned control operations last year.

In response, provincial safety director Odo Feenstra said three members of the 18-man control team had been on sick leave for a long time but measures had been taken to strengthen it.

Provincial food supervisor Gernot Handler said there had been 4,928 control operations and 1,942 surveys in 2009 rather than the planned 5,916 control operations and 2,991 surveys.

Feenstra ruled out any link between the reduced number of control operations last year and illnesses caused by Quargel cheese contaminated by listeria bacteria. He said the reduction in control operations had lowered the number of low-risk targets rather than high-risk targets examined.

Failure in warning and control systems had been the cause of listeria contamination of eight brands of its Quargel cheese, Prolactal recently claimed.

The firm said a scarab or type of beetle (Dungk�fer or aphodius fimetarius) had been the carrier of the disease. Beetles had climbed through an open window and contaminated machines used to make the cheese.

Graz public prosecutor�s office announced several weeks ago that it would investigate the deadly Prolactal cheese case.

Consumption of food with excessive concentrations of listeria can lead to meningitis, encephalitis and blood-poisoning.

Austrian Times

Write your comment to this article here

Tag cloud:
AGES listeria deadly hospitalised bacteria surveys infections Quargel Styria cheese planned Prolactal Feenstra recall deaths inflammation contaminated targets Woche food

Latest News

Set up tax on financial transactions soon, says Katzian
The head of the Association of Private Employees (GPA-djp) has called for a quick introduction of a tax on financial transactions.

P�hringer rejects U-turn on rightist ball
Young Social Democrats (SP�) have appealed to Upper Austrian Governor Josef P�hringer not to attend the Burschenbundball in Linz this Saturday.

FP� under fire after trip to Grozny
The Freedom Party (FP�) has been harshly criticised for meeting with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

WKO boss wants pension age hike incentives
Federal Economy Chamber (WKO) President Christoph Leitl has identified attempts to raise the average retirement age as the key issue regarding Austria�s budget.

Woman and child run over in Vienna
A woman and child have died in a road accident in Vienna, Austria. The lorry driver was making a right turn when he drove into a group of pedestrians leaving a 59-year-old and a 12-year-old dead. The mother of the school girl was left with serious injuries.

Schlecker says Austrian jobs are safe
The son of Schlecker founder Anton Schlecker has claimed that the company has no plans to sell its Austrian affiliate.

SP� sees smaller parliament as key signal
The general secretary of the Social Democrats (SP�) has argued his support for a reduction of the size of the parliament.

Austrian food to feature in organic trade fair
Austria is expected to be well represented at next week�s BioFach 2012 international organic trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany. Some 90 companies and organisations from the Austrian organic good sector will feature at the fair from 15 to 18 February.

Brothel for the homeless in Vienna
Homeless people are queueing up for free rooms in an Austrian brothel after owner Peter Laskaris said it would be unfair not to do everything he could during the current cold spell.

Deep-freeze snacks for orangutans in Sch�nbrunn
The lucky orangutans who take up residence in Europe�s oldest zoo have been indulging in a twice weekly take-away. Despite the trees in Sch�nbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria now being completely bare the fury friends have fresh branches and leaves delivered twice a week.