Taipei Times
Date: Sep 02, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday urged pregnant women to maintain good hand hygiene and avoid eating raw food after it reported a case of listeriosis in a newborn, who might have contracted the disease from her mother after she ate contaminated food during the pregnancy.

Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said that the nation’s first case of neonatal listeriosis reported this year was an infant born in northern Taiwan late last month with shortness of breath.

“Examination results showed that she had contracted listeriosis,” Guo said. “The mother had eaten salad and sashimi in May and June, so doctors think there is a high possibility that the infant was infected through vertical transmission from her mother.”

So far this year Taiwan has reported 97 cases of listeriosis, lower than in the same period in 2018, which had 121 cases, and last year, which had 129 cases, he said.  [FULL  STORY]