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The photo that illustrates this information was received by the WhatsApp mobile messaging application, the General Director of Public Health of the Board, José María de Torres, just over two weeks ago, when the final results of the analyzes were not yet Magrudis meatloaf.

The samples that appear above barely had 48 hours, but the growth of the listeria bacteria - the green mass, the yellow is the breeding ground - was so spectacular that it was enough to decree the alert almost immediately, without waiting the final confirmation, which arrived from the Municipal Laboratory of Seville on the 19th.

The protocols state that you have to wait for the official confirmation to decree the alert for listeriosis, but in this case it was ignored.

The outbreak in Andalusia is the second largest in the world after the one recorded in South Africa between 2017 and 2018, with 1,060 confirmed cases and 216 deaths.

On that occasion, the infection was caused by processed meat.

This photo was referred to by the Minister of Health, Jesús Aguirre, last Friday in his appearance in Parliament, when he assured that he acted with the "maximum speed" and "advanced" in three days to the official confirmation of the municipal laboratory, which, as he said, occurred on August 17.

The Board, with an interim but not definitive report, asked the City Council of Seville on the 14th to inspect the Magrudis factory and to paralyze the manufacture of the meatloaf, according to the information conveyed by the counselor.

Aguirre explained that the sample of Magrudis meatloaf that was taken on August 13 in a restaurant in the Sevillian town of La Rinconada -the one in the image- reflected a "spectacular" growth of the Listeria: "Never had a plate been seen of Petri with so many colonies of the bacteria, "said the Health adviser.

The general director of Public Health of the Board "was scared " when he saw a photo of that sample and therefore the health alert was decreed, he added.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Andalusia
  • Health

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