Three Cases of Listeria Infection in Texas, Linked to Blue Bell Ice Cream

United States health authorities said that there have been three cases of Listeria in Texas that can be traced back to Blue Bell ice cream. There have also been infections in Kansas which are thought to be linked to the a strain of the bacteria. Three patients in Texas have been placed into hospitals for unrelated illnesses, but all of them seem to have developed the conditions after eating ice cream produced in the suburbs of Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, at a Blue Bell plant.

The hospitals said that they have treated Listeria cases between 2011 and 2014, and that all of the patients survived. Since the outbreak, many grocery stores have removed Blue Bell from their offer and the plant is now closed. It has been confirmed that the strains in Kansas and Texas are the same. There are in total eight cases of Listeria infections, and all of them are said to be linked to Blue Bell products. There were five patients in Wichita, Kansas, but three of them died. Doctors said that Listeriosis was present in the patients, but it was not the cause of death.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explained that Listeriosis is a very dangerous infection caught if eating food containing bacterium Listeria. It most commonly affects pregnant women, the elderly, people with compromised immune systems and newborns. Some patients do not survive the infection.