How climate change can fuel listeriosis outbreaks in South Africa

Abstract

The listeriosis outbreak that began in early 2017 in South Africa (SA) is the largest recorded globally. The source of the outbreak was located in early March 2018, when traces of the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium were found in a food production facility in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, SA, which produces ready-to-eat processed meat products. By the time the source was identified, about 950 cases of invasive disease had been confirmed and 180 deaths reported, almost certainly underestimates of the actual extent of the disease. Actions to halt the outbreak, such as product recalls and closing implicated processing plants, are clearly an immediate priority, as are steps to enforce environmental health standards. It is also important, however, to pay attention to factors relating to the longer-term, structural environment in which such outbreaks unfold and which may contribute to an increased frequency of cases in the near future. One such factor is climate change, which has garnered little attention thus far in the discourse surrounding the outbreak.