3 deaths in Listeria outbreak linked to plant-based drinks

a third person has died in a leria outbreak connected to plant-based milks Chris Glover joins us now with more on this and Chris all the deaths have been here in Ontario even though this outbreak is Countrywide yeah absolutely it seems to be affecting Ontario particularly hard and now we know that two of the deaths are from here in Toronto and a third was announced uh last month being from Peele but as you mentioned of the 20 lab confirmed cases by the public health agent of Canada more than half of them are from here in Ontario 13 of them from Ontario and we know that 15 of those people had to be hospitalized we also know that the cases range in age from just 7 years old all the way up to 89 years old and we know that 70% of the 20 cases from across the country are 50 years of age or older we also know that 65% of the cases are women and the public health agency of Canada says that people started becoming ill with this back in August of last year and some of the cases were uh confirmed as recently as mid July of this year and on July 8th we know that Donan Canada and the Canadian food inspection um uh agency issued a voluntary recall of 15 silk products plant-based beverage products and a recall was put in place not to consume sell serve or distribute these products and people should still be checking Dwight because really interestingly with this recall we know that some of the best before dates are up to and including October 4th and this is something that people should be taking very seriously according to infectious disease expert Dr IA Isaac bogos here's more from him if you have any of these products throw them out if you're not sure if you have these products throw them out better safe than sorry uh the incubation period can be as short as 7even days but can also extend for weeks and weeks and that's a period of time where the you might have ingested the bacteria unintentionally you haven't developed symptoms yet and that's the period of time between ingesting this and developing symptoms now the real risk the most severe risk is in people who are on the who have on the extremes of age the oldest Among Us the youngest among us also in pregnant women and in people who are imuno compromised those are individuals who are at risk for very severe infections the bacteria can get into the intestines it gets absorbed it gets into the bloodstream and then it has a predilection for going to the brain and causing a pretty severe menitis most people who are not you know in the extremes of age or pregnant or imuno compromised you know they'll have a a diarrhea like symptom they'll have gastroenteritis mild to moderate usually it self- resolves but uh certainly this can cause more severe infection in those with with risk factors we see it occasionally in the hospital uh we can treat it we can diagnose it but the key thing here is to prevent it now last week the Canadian food inspection agency confirmed confirmed that the leria contamination originated at a beverage production facility in Pickering Ontario we know that that uh investigation is still listed as active or ongoing and we've also reached out to Donan Canada because they use that production line and uh in previous statements they have said that they found it devastating to learn of these deaths and they offered their uh their sympathies to those who were involved they also said that they've initiated this recall and they've also halted production and any of the products coming from that facility in Pickering Ontario public health advises that you should still be checking for those products as bogos was mentioning they are quite serious especially for imuno compromised people and uh even if people are hearing about this and thinking oh they they've kept it in the fridge it should be safe uh it's not perhaps like deli meats for example Dr Isaac bogos says think again watch this interesting thing about this particular bacteria leria and people think well I have this product I'm keeping it in the fridge you know surely this bacteria isn't going to cause problems if it's in the fridge it's not going to replicate but that's actually not true for this particular bacteria leria is known to uh survive and multiply in refrigeration temperatures it's sort of unique to this particular bacteria so it certainly can cause problems even if the product is stored in the fridge where it should be stored okay so if you have had any of these products watch for symptoms they could show up as early as 3 days after contaminated food has been consumed some of those symptoms you should be watching for are fever nausea cramps diarrhea and vomiting some of the more severe symptoms as bogos was saying earlier can actually take up to 70 days for them to present in the body and some of those that people should be watching for are stiff neck confusion loss of balance and if you've been diagnosed with this even if your symptoms don't feel that severe Public Health says do not cook food for anybody else so just some of the things that people need to keep in mind as they hear about this outbreak that now we know there's been a third confirmed death linked to this outbreak Dwight important information thank you Chris