The refrigerator is a good helper for preserving food. However, if you have the elderly, pregnant women, children or people with weak immunity, be very vigilant, because there may be a deadly killer lurking in your refrigerator! That’s Listeria.
Get to know Listeria
Listeria was officially named by South African scholars in 1940. It is divided into 8 species, of which the disease-causing species is Listeria monocytogenes, or Listeria monocytogenes for short. Listeria monocytogenes is primarily food-borne and is one of the deadliest foodborne pathogens. It is widely distributed in nature and has strong survivability. Its traces can be found in rotting plants, soil, animal feces, sewage, etc., and can occur in any link in the kitchen from water to food.
Foods related to Listeria are mainly milk and dairy products, meat, especially beef products, raw vegetables and salads, and seafood, etc. Contaminated food can cause listeriosis.
The growth temperature range of Listeria is 2 to 42°C, and it is psychrophilic and freeze-tolerant. Therefore, Listeria has a nickname, called “refrigerator killer.” The food stored in the refrigerator compartment of the household refrigerator may be tricked by a little carelessness.
What are the symptoms of listeria infection
The initial symptoms after infection are similar to gastroenteritis, with pain, diarrhea, and fever, accompanied by nausea and vomiting. In the later stage, it can cause sepsis, meningitis, and sometimes endocarditis. If not treated in time, it often leads to death within 72 hours. Symptoms of pregnant women vary in severity, and may lead to miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth or neonatal death. Even if the fetus survives, it is prone to pneumonia, sepsis, meningitis, etc., and causes life-long problems such as intellectual disability, epilepsy, paralysis, blindness, etc.
Listeria infection has two other characteristics. First, the incubation period is long, generally 4 to 21 days, up to 3 months, so it is difficult to arouse people’s vigilance; second, “bullying the soft and fearing the hard”. In people with normal immune function, Listeria usually causes only mild symptoms, similar to colds or gastroenteritis, and goes away without treatment; in people with weakened immune function, such as the elderly, pregnant women, children or chronic diseases Patients, etc., the consequences are more serious.
The World Health Organization classifies high-risk groups of listeriosis into six groups: pregnant women and fetuses, cancer patients without chemotherapy, those with excessive alcohol consumption and substance abuse, people with diabetes, people with AIDS, and the elderly.
How to avoid getting Listeria
1. The storage time of refrigerated food in the refrigerator should not exceed 1 week. It should be thoroughly heated and sterilized before eating, and the temperature must reach 70°C for more than 2 minutes, because Listeria is quickly killed at 60°C.
2. The refrigerator should not be overfilled, pay attention to the temperature and storage time of frozen and refrigerated food. It is best to place a thermometer in the refrigerator and freezer, respectively, and adjust the temperature to 4-10°C and minus 20°C. Regularly organize your refrigerator to remove moldy and spoiled fruits, vegetables, and leftover meals.
3. People with low immunity (such as the elderly, pregnant women, children, etc.) should eat less or no refrigerated food.
4. Before processing cooked food, cutting boards and knives should be thoroughly cleaned. Cutting boards and knives for processing raw and cooked food should be completely separated to reduce the possibility of pathogenic bacteria directly contaminating cooked food.
5. Do not drink unpasteurized raw milk. It is not recommended to eat salads or raw aquatic products that have been refrigerated in the refrigerator, as well as unheated soft cheese, ham and other cooked foods (except canned food).
Internal treatment method of Chinese patent medicine
1. Wind heat. Symptoms usually include fever, headache, sweating, cough, thirst, nasal congestion and mucus, slight aversion to wind and cold, sore throat, thick, yellow sputum, and thin white tongue coating and sometimes yellowish. Governance is acrid and cool, relieves the surface, disperses wind and dissipates heat. It is recommended to take Compound Honeysuckle Granules, Compound Niuhuang Anti-inflammatory Capsules, Qingkailing Oral Liquid, Lingqiao Jiedu Pills, Antiviral Oral Liquid, Yinqiao Jiedu Tablets, etc.
2. Wind chill. Symptoms usually include heavy nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, excessive and thin phlegm, aversion to cold and fever in severe cases, soreness of the limbs, severe pain in the head and neck, aversion to wind-cold with or without sweating, thin white tongue coating, and a slow or floating pulse. tight. Treating pungent and warming, dispelling cold. It is recommended to take Guizhi Mixture, Magui Ganmao Pills, Wushicha Granules, Ganmao Qingre Granules, Fenghanmao Granules, Chuanxiongcha Tiao Granules, Jingfangbaidu Pills, etc.
3. Heat and dampness. Usually in summer, the symptoms are sticky mouth, bitter taste, loss of appetite, abdominal distention, heavy head, drowsiness, loose stool, slippery pulse, thin white and greasy tongue coating. Treating dampness and neutralizing, dispelling summer heat and relieving the exterior. You can choose Huoxiangzhengqi traditional Chinese medicine, Qingre Yinhua syrup, afternoon tea granules, compound Xiangju water, Xiangju cold granules, Qushu dew, etc.
4. Physical weakness. Weak constitution, suffering from manifestations caused by external evils. Treating and dissolving evil spirits and supporting righteousness. Generally, the medicines that help yang or tonic and the medicines to relieve the symptoms are selected together to form a preparation, which can solve the symptoms without affecting the righteousness. You can take Shensu Capsules, Deficient Ganmao Mixture, Yupingfeng Granules, Ginseng Baidu Capsules, etc. orally.
5. The same disease inside and outside. Evils reside in the exterior and interior, alternating cold and heat, and both exterior and interior heat are present. Symptoms are fever and fear of cold, dry throat and bitterness in the mouth, heavy nasal congestion, pain in limbs, sore throat, thirst, upset, shortness of breath, cough, and thick phlegm. And yellow, red constipation, thin yellow or thin white fur, red tongue, stringy pulse. It is appropriate to treat both inside and outside, and both outside and inside. It can be taken orally with Maxingganshi mixture, Fangfengtongsheng pills or granules, Yinchai granules, Xiao Chaihu granules, Chaihu oral liquid, etc.