Two residents of a Ottawa retirement home have died in a month-long outbreak at home.
Ottawa Public Health says officials are investigating the outbreak in the City View Retirement Community in Nepean, and as of Tuesday noon, there were four confirmed cases among home residents, including the two people who they are dead.
Listeria is rarely transmitted from person to person, and bacteria often come from contaminated foods such as raw (unpasteurized) milk, soft cheeses, raw vegetables, melons, and ready-to-eat meats such as hot dogs, pâtés, and cold cuts.
Bacteria can also be transferred from one food to another due to improper food handling and can grow into refrigerated foods, according to the OPH website.
This is a 3D illustration of the bacterium, Listeria, which causes listeriosis. Two residents of nursing homes have died after eating food contaminated with listeria. (Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock)
The high-risk foods mentioned above were removed from the home menu from May 4, according to OPH, and has requested and continues to request daily communication of the facility through line lists and phone calls. as needed.
OPH said it has also made 10 site visits over the past month, including several food safety compliance inspections and follow-up inspections, and at least one critical hazard analysis checkpoint audit.
The research is supported by Public Health Ontario, as well as its laboratories and the Food Inspection Agency of Canada.
OPH has sent food samples and environmental swab samples to the provincial lab, which needs about a week to provide preliminary results and an additional week to provide the final results.
City View said it is cooperating with researchers to help determine the origin of the bacterium, which is still unknown.
In a statement, it said that none of the foods tested by OPH so far have tested positive for listeria, but as a precaution the home does not currently serve sausages, which are a common source of the bacterium.