LIFE AFTER LISTERIOSIS

CAMPAIGN

Year: 2017

Location: South Africa

Partners: Daily Maverick

A selection of images from this series are available from W17 Gallery.

In 2017, South Africa battled the world’s largest listeriosis outbreak ever. For weeks, health workers and scientists were dumbfounded by the outbreak, trying to treat inexplicable symptoms. They ran many tests until finally confirming listeriosis. Across the country, numerous pregnant women who had listeria went into premature labour. Men and women, who were previously fit and healthy, fell sick overnight and died within a matter of days.

The meat came from a single factory in Polokwane, but the devastation its distribution sowed across the country was wide: people were presenting with listeriosis symptoms in Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Durban. Panic set in. Products were pulled from shop shelves. “listeriosis”, a word the average citizen had probably never heard before, was now on everyone’s lips as the deadly outbreak became the most dominant news story of July 2017. By December 2017, it was confirmed that Gauteng was hardest hit, with 399 cases. In the Western Cape, 84 cases were reported and in KwaZulu-Natal 45.

On 3 December 2018 the South Gauteng High Court certified the class action, meaning that the court accepted that the applicants could represent not only themselves, but all people who can prove that they were similarly affected by the negligence of the company. Sadly though, this is just the first step. The matter still has to go to trial and that could be a long time away. The wheels of justice are moving steadily, but painfully slowly. The claimants in the matter are in limbo, waiting for answers that can only be uncovered during the trial. Until then they have no choice but to sit and wait for their day in court.

Amelia Govender and Kyle Victor were incredibly excited for the arrival of their baby girl Summer Reign. They both describe the birth of their little girl as the best day of their lives. Kyle who had initially hoped for a boy, fell in love with his daughter at first sight. “I saw her and I just thought, ‘why did I ever want a boy?’” Amelia and Kyle had been thoroughly prepared for their baby. Amelia had bought small outfits for summer Reign, she even got her a Louis Vuitton baby blanket. Amelia got worried when her babies movements started to wane, that was the first sign of trouble. A few days later, her and Kyle were completely devastated when their baby died. Amelia has tears in her eyes as she talks about how she prayed that her baby would wake up during her funeral, but Summer was gone. Since then, Amelia has dealt with debilitating health issues. Every morning she wakes up to a swollen face, and often her lower body breaks out in an itchy rash, that leaves welts all over her. She still has not been able to figure out what the cause of her illness is.

Carla Verlaat lost her first baby in 2017. She went into premature labor at 22 weeks. Her son Shem only lived for 24 hours before he died. The Doctors told Carla her baby had a clot in his brain and he was later diagnosed with Listeria. Carla breaks into tears as she speaks about the pain of her milk running down her breasts, while she had no baby to feed. She has a single picture of Shem on her phone, he is lying in an incubation box, with many pipes attached to his fragile body, his face is a dark grey. Since Shem passed on, Carla has battled with the grief of losing her baby. Despite having gone to therapy, she still struggles to manage her mood swings. Sometimes she stabs her bedroom door with a knife, in an attempt to find some kind of release. She blames herself for Shem’s death and is too afraid to try for another baby. 

Tebogo Ntjana suffered a miscarriage after being rushed to hospital when she suddenly became very ill in October 2017. The doctors took blood samples and told her that she had contracted listeriosis. Not knowing anything about the illness, Tebogo and her husband, Teddy, searched online for it and were alarmed to find out the severity of the condition. “We googled listeria…yoh we got scared.”

Thinking that it was a singular case, they presumed that they had done something to cause the illness. The next day Tebogo had a miscarriage, four months into her pregnancy. 

One month later they heard the minister of health announcing the listeriosis outbreak on the radio. The news came as a relief to the couple who would often buy polony and viennas from the Tiger Brand factory shop in Germiston. They had been blaming themselves for the miscarriage since it happened. “You blame yourself as if you killed your baby,” Tebogo said.

Annelize Le Roux lost her miracle baby. The year before, she terminated her pregnancy after discovering that her baby had downs syndrome. After a medical mishap, she was told that she would never have another child. Being pregnant with her son Andreas was an unexpected but happy surprise. The family was devastated when Andreas died, Annelize remembers walking into one of her kids rooms, to find him holding onto the babies clothes.

Before Andreas died, Annelize’s whole family fell ill. “It was just like strong flu symptoms,” she said. Her husband Martin did not think much of his illness. But after Andreas died, they received results from a blood test she had sent to England. Those results confirmed that Andreas had contracted listeriosis from his mothers womb. When Annelize found out about the outbreak, she used her history of microbiology in isolating and packaging food stuffs from her fridge. When the health inspectors came to her home, she had prepared all the samples for them. A move that played a crucial role in assisting the health department in confirming the source of the contaminated food stuffs. 

Ephraim Chinula is Riley Chinula’s grandfather. Riley contracted Listeriosis alongside nine other children after eating contaminated meat at their creche in Soweto. The stool from the sick children was examined and led to the first confirmation of the listeriosis outbreak. 

Riley, who was three years old at the time, was the youngest of the kids at the creche. They had high fevers, stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea. The entire group was taken to Baragwanath hospital, where doctors were ready to receive them. 

“I got the impression that the Dr’s knew what they were dealing with, as they had been briefed by the local clinic, so they already suspected listeriosis.” 

Tests were run on the kids and it was finally confirmed that the children had indeed contracted listeriosis. When the news broke, the community banded together and committed themselves to seeking justice for what they viewed as negligence on the part of tiger brands. The community approached public interest law firm Section27, who then referred them to Richard Spoors inc. 

Monthla Ngobeni is the first named claimant in the court papers. Her daughter Thetho, who is 1 year and 11 months old, has undergone four operations since she was born. After contracting listeriosis in her mothers womb, Thetho developed a condition called Hydrocaphelus, a build up of fluid in the brain. In order to save Thetho’s life and manage her condition, she has had to have shunts inserted in her head, to drain the extra fluid. 

The shunt has been blocked twice so far, forcing the little girl to undergo surgery to remove and replace it. Doctors have told Monthla that Thetho’s development milestones will be significantly delayed. Thetho is nearly two years old, and cannot speak yet. For as long as Thetho is alive, she will have to have the shunts replaced as she gets older. There is no certainty of what the future holds for her. 

Monthla’s has fallen into debt trying to manage both her and Thetho’s medical bills. She currently owes a hospital R26,000 for a hip replacement that she needed due to her listeriosis infection.

Stephen Thokwane is a shadow of his former self. The fit and healthy man fell ill in December 2017. What started off as a mere headache and flu-like symptoms turned into a nightmare for his family. 

Dumbfounded by his sudden illness, which was presumed to be a stroke, the family first sought spiritual help. The prophet told the family that they needed to pray for Stephen. He was then admitted into hospital, where he lost his eyesight, suffered with severe delirium and temporary paralyses. 

The man who used to jog 15KM’s at a time, found himself having to learn how to walk again. And while he is back on his feet, his health is still not what it was. He sufferers with fatigue, and he has lost strength. Due to this, he is no longer able to continue his part time job of boiler making, which he used to support his family, alongside his formal employment. 

Thokwane is now working towards paying off a loan he took out to build a house for his wife and four kids. “After he got so sick, he was worried that he may die without leaving us with a roof over our head, so he took out a loan to build this house,” his wife Maggi said.

At 31-years-old Christina Ledwaba gave birth to a stillborn baby. She knew something was amiss when she noticed that baby’s movements in her womb had dwindled. She consulted the gynaecologist who told her not to worry, that perhaps baby was sleeping. Christina then fell ill, suffering with headaches and a fever. She was rushed to hospital to check on her baby. 

“I knew something was wrong the minute I saw that sonar,” she said. Doctors later confirmed that the baby had no heartbeat, she then gave birth to Mohau. When the baby was delivered, the nurses merely left the umbilical cord attached. For hours she lay on the bed with her baby under her legs. 

Since then Christina has had another baby, but when she was eight months pregnant she experienced diarrhoea and started to panic, worried that something was wrong again, but she was able to give birth to a healthy little girl. Christina still consumes the enterprise products, but she makes sure that they are heated first.

Anetta Masie, 44, only held her baby girl once before she died. Her baby contracted listeriosis in her womb and died soon after birth. As the baby was premature and weighed less than a kilogram, the foetus was disposed of as medical waste. She was unable to have a funeral for her child. She was discharged the same day and told to come back at a later stage to have her womb cleaned. 

Anette spent at least two weeks in hospital being treated for listeriosis with antibiotic drips. When she finally returned home to Limpopo, accompanied by her husband Thomas, her two elder children were devastated to find that she did not come home with a baby. “Losing my baby was so painful, especially because I didn’t really know what killed my baby,” said Anetta. Since the death of her baby girl, Anetta does not eat any enterprise products, she is terrified that she will get ill again. 

Johan Keisser considers himself ‘one of the lucky ones’. The 65-year-old pensioner fell ill and was rushed to hospital by his wife. He has no recollection of being in the hospital for twenty five days, twelve of which he spent in ICU. Johan admits that he would always have polony in his sandwiches that he took to work. “I had polony with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes every single day, and it almost cost me my life” he said. While Johan has made a full recovery, he noted that he has a weakness in his legs making it difficult for him to get up. Johan has high praises for the doctors who attended to him “I am so grateful that they pulled me through… because according to me, I was a dead person for twenty days,” he said.

Alana Julie lost her husband, Antonio, in 2017 after he contracted listeriosis. Her husband died a gruesome death. He was in excruciating pain from the moment he fell ill. Within 72 hours Antonio lost his eyesight, by the fourth day he was put on life support, and by the fifth day all of his organs had shut down. The doctors told Alana that she had two hours to decide whether or not to take him off life support. Since Antonio died, Alana has moved back to her Mothers house where she shares a single bedroom with her 5 children. The family is struggling to make ends meet, living solely off Alana’s salary which doesn’t go very far. Her children remember their Dad as an ever present father that used to play the guitar and sing songs to them. A few weeks ago, their house was broken into and thieves stole Antonio’s guitar, devastating his eldest son Jayden. 

Meryl Khotia was pregnant in July 2017. Her and her husband were looking forward to having their first child together. Her husband Shabeer immediately started a separate savings account to cater for the babies needs. At 7 months, Meryl started to feel ill, she struggled with her fever on and off, until the Dr’s told her they would have to perform an emergency caesarean section. Baby Saiheer was born on the 28th of Nov, as far as Meryl knew, the baby was healthy. When her husband arrived at the hospital to see her and the baby, he found little Saiheer dead. 

Saiheer lived less than a day before he died due to a listeriosis infection contracted from his mothers womb. After Meryl was discharged from the hospital, she started to notice that she was getting severe allergic reactions, especially if it was hot. Her body would start to itch so badly, that she would get welts when she scratched. She also described her face swelling up, so much so that she is afraid of leaving the house. “I don’t want people to see me like that.” she said.