TeachableMedicalNews article 10222020
Teachable moment in classrooms:
- cellular basis of life chapter – cytosol
- nervous system chapter – location of meninges
- immune system chapter – vasodilation during inflammation
- immune system chapter – emigration by white blood cells
- microbiology – Listeria monocytogenes biology
The news item: Recently a Listeria outbreak was reported to have started from contaminated mushrooms:
Enoki mushrooms tied to listeria outbreak that killed four people and hospitalized 31, CDC says | CNN
Enoki mushrooms are linked to four deaths and 31 hospitalizations in what the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says was a multistate listeria outbreak that is now presumed to be over.
The article stated that Listeria outbreak is caused by a bacterium, and that the symptoms of infection are stiff neck, loss of balance, miscarriage, confusion and fever.
So, Why Do I Care??
Infection by Listeria bacterium is the third leading cause of food borne illness, and it is the most lethal food borne illness by killing about 15 – 20% of the infected individuals. In the US each year about 1600 people get infected, and 260 die. The victims are the most vulnerable of society: elderly, pregnant women, and immunosuppressed people.
Plain English, Please!!!
First, let’s talk about what Listeria is. Listeria is a type of bacterium that infects human beings when they consume Listeria-contaminated food. The bacterium lives