Boar's Head facility in Virginia linked to deadly listeria outbreak

Tonight, we are learning more about boar's head facility linked to a deadly Listeria outbreak over the last year. USDA officials logged 69 examples of non compliance at the plant in Virginia. Inspectors say they found mold insects puddles of blood at this plant. At least nine people have died from this. 57 have also been hospitalized in various states. Operations at the Virginia plant are now on hold. Bores had recalled 7 million pounds of deli meat last month. So let's bring out our nineties medical expert, Doctor Coley, I mean, obviously this is concerning to think so many people have died from this and the conditions at that plant is terrifying. Very concerning, but it's not a new disease. So Listeria is a bacteria most commonly spread by contaminated food found in soils found in animal feces, but even touching contaminated food. For example, if a piece of meat is contaminated, you touch it with your produce or your, you can actually spread Listeria that way. And it really is a food poisoning that's extremely severe. So I'm talking nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, but even fevers, muscle aches and chills and it can spread to your bloodstream. If you're a pregnant woman who gets infected with Listeria, you could not only lose the baby, you could actually pass the infection to the baby. So, miscarriages and pregnancy complications are common. Obviously, the description of the plant gets your attention and it makes you wonder that when you describe Listeria in some ways, should it actually be more common or do they do enough to make sure that it never does reach the food line? Well, I think food safety tom is something we don't talk about enough. We sort of assume that the food that we get from a grocery store is safe and that's not always the case, but even handling of the food afterwards is something we have to think about. So here we're talking about deli meats and deli meats are common in terms of, you know, targets for listeria. And in fact, hot dogs, for example, which are already cooked, right? And people don't heat them up enough, you can even get Listeria to thrive in that. And that's because Listeria is a very hardy bacteria. Even in the fridge, it can divide and replicate. So, so with cold cuts, it's, it's gonna be more common. But with a, with a hot dog, you have one more line of defense in how you cook it. That's exactly right. And same goes for a lot of the other products. So for example, our produce our salads, we often think if something has a peel on it. We're gonna take the peel off like an apple. We don't need to worry about it, but the recommendation is still to wash it very thoroughly because it can get very easily contaminated cantaloupes, melons, those precut fruits that you often buy those pre made salads, all the perfect foods that we would eat on a Labor Day picnic, in fact, totally. So, I mean, that's the question. Right. I was like gonna plan my little Fancy Charcuterie for the weekend. What do I need to know is I'm literally going to the store and picking out what I want to make my, my fancy truck. Yeah. So lots of things. First, if it's boar's head and it's under recall, you wanna make sure that none of that deli meat is coming from that particular manufacturer. Second, raw cheeses, uh raw milk, unpasteurized products are very high risk for Listeria. So if anyone pregnant is coming to your party, you don't serve them that charcuterie at any point. You wanna make sure you don't prepare anything more than a day before it for raw food or deli meats. I would say more than an hour before the time is right. So keep everything in the fridge until the very last minute. Some people even say when you're bringing home the food from the store, you wanna keep your meats in a separate bag, then you keep your other products because that reduces the risk of contamination, especially with the raw meats and use your utensils and cutting boards and such. They're separate. Make sure you wash your hands and wipe down those surfaces. Well, I won't be eating this weekend but a hot dog, you can crave a hot dog. He's got a char on the outside. Hey, let's talk about other stuff. Outdoors people. Hopefully the weather is gonna be sensational during Labor Day weekend. But mosquito borne illnesses certainly come top of mind. Uh, here in Colorado especially, it's been a real issue this year. We've had many different West Nile virus. Doctor Fauci had it was in the hospital with it. Eastern equine encephalitis and then another one coming out of Cuba that's called sloth fever. All mosquito borne illnesses. So, so we do prevent it or can we, once we get it, do we have to know that we have it quickly? So, the good thing is most adults will be asymptomatic. But if you can progress to severe disease, I would say prevention is really the key here. And you've got to wear that insect repellent, especially if your picnic or your outdoor party is near some sort of standing body of water like a lake or a pond or anything because that attracts the mosquitoes. I love taking a walk at dusk in the summer time, but that is when the mosquitoes bite, they're dawn and dusk. So you wanna try to avoid those hours if you don't like the repellents, we you can use lemon eucalyptus oil. That's also a natural mosquito repellent. Just don't use it on kids under three and make sure to cover up those sleeves. Just do your best to not get bitten. When will you know that you don't just have a bug bite that you don't just have an itch that, that you're sick. And so for many of these, it can take a few weeks for symptoms to manifest, but these are severe flu like symptoms that can occur. So, if you've spent some time outdoors and within 5 to 7 days, roughly you start to have any kind of severe flu like symptoms, you may wanna go and get tested. Unfortunately, no treatments, most of us will be ok. But again, for those of us where it spreads to the nervous system, the brain and the spinal cord, the, the, the consequences can be severe. Well, happy Labor Day. Well, the end of summer, I feel like the next time we talk to you, it'll be COVID shots and flu shots and getting ready for fall not too far away from that. And that's right. Doctor Coley is always thanks for being here and don't forget you can find more with Doctor Coley at nine. News.com/doctor Coley.