South Africa’s Health Minister has announced the end to the world’s worst recorded listeria outbreak after it killed 216 people and caused illness to more than 1,000 people since early 2017.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told a news conference that no new cases had been recorded for three months.
“The conclusion is that the outbreak of listeriosis in South Africa is over,” Mr Motsoaledi said.
Health officials announced in March that they had traced the outbreak to an Enterprise Food plant, 300km (185 miles) northeast of Pretoria, and immediately ordered a nationwide recall of affected processed meat products.
In March this year, authorities in Zambia imposed a ban on the importation of risky food products like processed meat from South Africa following an outbreak of listeriosis in that country.
The ministry of health later in April lifted the ban after investigations revealed that no presence of listeria monocytogenes in the sampled foods.
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