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The Cause Unknown after a Year South Africa is encountering the worst case of listeriosis ever reported, according to WHO (World Health Organization). Currently, there are 727 laboratory-confirmed cases with 67 death reported. The number of cases and the death toll increased significantly since last December when South Africa had 577 cases and 36 deaths. South Africa Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said “When we view statistics of affected people, we note that of all the vulnerable groups, neonates [newborn babies within first 28 days of life] are the worst affected if we analyze it by age group from birth to 93...

The FDA announced that T. Marzetti Company voluntarily recalled a variety of frozen biscuits due to the potential contamination with Listeria monocytogenes, as a precautionary measure. Twenty-three frozen 12 or 20 count biscuits packs of T. Marzetti biscuit products are being recalled, including: Southern Home Old Fashioned Buttermilk Style Biscuits, Marshall’s and Shur Fine Old Fashioned Southern Style Biscuits, Shur Fine Old Fashioned, Buttermilk Biscuits, Valu Time, Food Club, SE Grocers, Lowes Foods, Laura Lynn, and Southern Home Southern Style Biscuits; Valu Time Buttermilk Style Biscuits, Food Lion Homestyle Buttermilk Biscuits, Food Club, SE Grocers, Piggly Wiggly, Lowes Foods, Premium Pick 5, Morning Fresh Farms,...

Dr. Timothy Lu, an associate professor in biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found a new potential way to kill superbugs with a DNA editor called CRISPR-Cas9. The Wall Street Journalreported that Dr. Lu said: “is is basically a molecular scissor” that can snip bacterial genes that make bacteria drug-resistant, killing the bug in the process.  The technology combines bacteriophages and CRISPR-Cas9 to target drug-resistant genes. What is CRISPR? CRISPR is used to edit or delete genes from living cells.  “CRISPR” means Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. They are the characteristic of a bacterial defense system that forms the basis for CRISPR-Cas9...

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) says preliminary test results from an E. coli outbreak in the U.S. shows a common source of infection with an outbreak in Canada that was linked to romaine lettuce. The CDC is investigating a multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli o157:H7 infections (STEC O157:H7) in 13 states. Seventeen illnesses have been reported from California (3), Connecticut (2), Illinois (1), Indiana (1), Michigan (1), Nebraska (1), New Hampshire (2), New York (1), Ohio (1), Pennsylvania (1), Virginia (1), Vermont (1) and Washington (1). Illnesses started on dates from November 15 through December 8, 2017. The Public...