This development adds an exclamation point to the end of 2000, a year already beset by a record-setting pace of more than 70 U.S. meat recalls. The latest problem, listeria, may not be the household name that salmonella is, or that E. coli and campylobacter are fast becoming. But it's depressingly familiar to emergency room personnel, who routinely see the human costs of foodborne illnesses. With listeria, that can often entail high fevers, severe headaches, neck stiffness, and nausea. Such symptoms can persist for days, even weeks.
Listeria can also trigger miscarriages and stillbirths.
And even with treatment, it kills fully one-fifth of those contracting it. Untreated, it kills 70 percent. Listeria strikes hardest at those with weakened or overtaxed immune systems, notably the elderly, the frail, pregnant women, newborn infants, diabetics, AIDS patients, cancer radiation and chemotherapy patients, and organ transplant recipients. Granted, those in robust health can probably fight off listeria infections, albeit after suffering through flu-like symptoms. But otherwise, as the Journal of the American Medical Association reported in 1989, listeriosis exacts dire consequences.