Listeria epidemic: Six-year death toll of Sussex patient

A sixth hospitalized patient died after eating sandwiches and pre-packaged salads related to a listeriosis outbreak.

The last death is one of nine previously confirmed cases related to the products of the good food chain. There are no new cases related, said Public Heath England.

The person became ill with listeriosis at the NHS Foundation Trust of West Susbad hospitals.

Confidence said she was "greatly saddened" by the news.

Dr. Maggie Davies, Chief Nurse and Director of Infection Prevention and Control, said, "Patient safety is always our number one priority, and once we've been informed that we've received contaminated chicken sandwiches from the Good Food chain, we removed all products from our hospitals.

"Since then, no other listeriosis infections have been reported to us and we want to rebadure our patients, visitors and staff that the risk remains very low."

The trust, which has sites in Worthing, Chichester and Shoreham-by-Sea, was one of 43 hospital trusts across England stocking sandwiches and salads prepackaged by the Good Food Chain, which has since been wound up.

The other deaths occurred in four different hospital trusts: two at the NHS Foundation Trust of the University of Manchester, one at the NHS Foundation Trust of the Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool, a at Derby University Hospitals and the NHS Foundation in Burton and the fifth at the NHS of the University. Trust.

There is another case at the NHS Foundation Trust at Western Susbad Hospital, a case at the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and another at the NHS Foundation Trust at East Kent Hospitals University, which were not fatal.

Good Food, based in Stone, Staffordshire, voluntarily ceased manufacturing equipment on June 5 following the deaths of five inpatients.

The company supplied meat produced by North Country Cooked Meats, which has since tested positive for the epidemic strain of listeria and has also stopped production.

In a statement released Thursday, Public Health England said it was continuing testing on all Listeria samples to verify if they were related to the outbreak.

He said he tested 34 samples and that none was related to the outbreak.

"Our investigations are continuing and the public must be rebadured that the risk remains low," he said.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, sure Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your article ideas to [email protected].