Was it a mass shooting? A tragic fire in an apartment complex? A 10-car pileup on an Interstate?
Nope. The culprit was the last thing you’d expect.
Soft cheese.
That’s right, soft cheese had been contaminated by a natural-born killer. And that killer was a bacteria known as Listeria.
Listeria is linked to listeriosis, a potentially deadly disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1,600 illnesses and 260 deaths due to listeriosis occur annually in the United States.
In 2015, two outbreaks of listeriosis were reported. In April, an outbreak was associated with cream distributed by Blue Bell Creameries. Ten people were infected in four states, resulting in three deaths.
And in September, a random outbreak was linked to soft cheese distributed to Karoun Dairies. In total, 30 cases of listeriosis were diagnosed in 10 different states. This resulted in 28 hospitalizations and three deaths.